In Response to Washington’s Warmongering, Beijing Is Taking off the Gloves

From shooting down a Chinese weather balloon allegedly used for spying purposes to boosting arms sales to Taiwan and ordering Beijing not to provide lethal weapons to Russia, the Biden Administration’s threats against China have gone over the top. As a result, Beijing is dropping its traditional diplomatic reserve.

On Feb. 20, just one day before releasing its Global Security Initiative Concept Paper (cf. SAS 8/23), the Foreign Ministry published a harsh attack on U.S. foreign policy in a paper entitled U.S. Hegemony and Its Perils. The introduction states outright what many in the world believe, including in the United States and Europe.

“Since becoming the world’s most powerful country after the two world wars and the Cold War, the United States has acted more boldly to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, pursue, maintain and abuse hegemony, advance subversion and infiltration, and willfully wage wars, bringing harm to the international community.

“The United States has developed a hegemonic playbook to stage ‘color revolutions’, instigate regional disputes, and even directly launch wars under the guise of promoting democracy, freedom and human rights. Clinging to the Cold War mentality, the United States has ramped up bloc politics and stoked conflict and confrontation. It has overstretched the concept of national security, abused export controls and forced unilateral sanctions upon others. It has taken a selective approach to international law and rules, utilizing or discarding them as it sees fit, and has sought to impose rules that serve its own interests in the name of upholding a ‘rules-based international order’.”

The document goes on to expose the United States’ abuse of hegemony “in the political, military, economic, financial, technological and cultural fields”.

The same combative tone was heard from the Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin at his Feb. 23 press conference, when asked about the U.S. State Department’s warning over China-Russia ties.

“The U.S. is the number 1 warmonger in the world”, he pointed out. “The U.S. accounted for about 80% of all post-World War II armed conflicts. The U.S. is also the number 1 violator of sovereignty and interferer in the internal affairs of other countries.… Since the end of World War II, the U.S. has sought to subvert more than 50 foreign governments, grossly interfered in elections in at least 30 countries, and attempted assassination on over 50 foreign leaders.”