At a time when global unity is needed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States, however, persists in pursuing an agenda of “America first, imposing sanctions wantonly, bullying and threatening international organizations, thus becoming the biggest troublemaker to global security and stability. The US trampled on international rules that result in humanitarian disasters.
In order to shirk its responsibility for its disastrous anti-pandemic measures, the Trump administration tried every means to scapegoat the World Health Organization (WHO) by fabricating false charges against the organization. On April 14, 2020, the U.S. government announced its suspension of paying dues to the WHO.
At a critical time when COVID-19 endangered human life, health, and wellbeing, the U.S. government still imposed unilateral sanctions on countries such as Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, and Syria, which made it difficult for the sanctioned countries to obtain needed anti-pandemic medical supplies in a timely manner.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said on March 24, 2020, in the case of a global pandemic, sanctions would hinder medical work and increase risks for everyone. She argued that to maintain global public health security, sanctions should be relaxed or suspended in certain sectors. But nothing happened.
The United States, as the largest cumulative emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, should bear the greatest share of emission reduction. However, the US ran counter to the trend of the times and officially withdrew from the Paris Agreement on Nov. 4, 2020, becoming the only country to quit the treaty.
On June 11, 2020, the U.S. government imposed economic sanctions and travel restrictions against workers of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and their family members for investigating American troops and intelligence officials for possible war crimes in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
The US also pardoned criminals who slaughtered civilians in other countries. On Dec. 30, 2020, the Working Group on the use of mercenaries, said that the then US President’s pardon of four Blackwater contractors convicted of war crimes in Iraq violated US obligations under international law.
The report released by the Chinese government also covers the deteriorating state of democracy in the United States. It is pertinent to mention here that the United States considers itself a “global contractor of democracy.” And in this regard, he lectures not only to developing countries around the world, but also to large countries such as Russia and China.
The US society has been plagued by deep-rooted money politics, unchecked public opinion manipulation and rampant lies, and American democracy has further aggravated social division instead of bridging the increasingly polarized political differences. 2020 was an election year in the United States.
Money is the driving force of American politics. America’s money politics has distorted public opinion, turning elections into a “one-man show” for the rich. The amount spent on the 2020 U.S. presidential and congressional campaigns hit nearly 14 billion U.S. dollars. The presidential campaign saw a record high of 6.6 billion U.S. dollars in total spending.
Public confidence in the transparency of the US election was hit by the worst crisis. According to Gallup’s figures released on Oct. 8, 2020, only 19 percent of Americans say they are “very confident” about the accuracy of the presidential election, the lowest Gallup has recorded in its trend dating back to 2004.
Disagreement between Democrats and Republicans gradually changed from policy differences to identity battles with increasingly obvious political tribalism. The two parties ended in deadlocks on many major public issues, thus leading to inefficient and incompetent state governance.
Millions of American citizens were harmed by creating a deadlock on Corona Relief Funds. Massachusetts once arranged to buy 3 million N95 masks for urgent needs, but federal authorities seized them at the Port of New York.
Claiming that the election was tainted by fraud, the defeated Republican camp refused to accept the presidential election results and filed several lawsuits, calling for a recount of ballots to overturn the election by pressuring and intimidating local election officials.
The election dispute eventually turned into riots. Thousands of individuals involved in violent riotous actions attacked officers with metal pipes, chemical irritants and other weapons, injuring more than 50 police officers. The attack on the US Parliament was carried out by none other than Donald Trump himself. (To be continued)
