US disregards its own ‘international rules-based order’ while condemning China

By Dennis Etler

The US couches its foreign policy pronouncements in a plethora of euphemisms which are meant to obfuscate its continued drive for global hegemony. One of its favorite terms is ‘the international rules-based order’ which it constantly accuses its adversaries of violating. Yet, the US has a very odd interpretation of what the ‘international order’ is. For Americans, the international rules based-order is whatever they say it is. As such they are immune from violating it themselves for they define what it is.

In reality, the ‘international rules-based order’ is the set of international accords that the global community of nations adheres to. These include the resolutions of the UN and its various agencies, the rules and regulations of the World Trade Organization, and the various multilateral treaties that the nations of the world have negotiated, signed, and ratified.

In this respect, it is the US that has refused to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the International Criminal Court, and numerous arms control treaties, and has broken or withdrawn from a series of international accords such as the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (also known as the Iranian Nuclear Deal), and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. It has also acted unilaterally in applying embargoes and sanctions against many countries without authorization from international bodies such as the UN or regional associations and has flagrantly violated international norms and the UN Charter by invading and occupying foreign, sovereign nations.

The US then turns around and accuses other nations of violating the ‘international rules-based order’ which it violates itself on a massive scale. Its accusations against China are particularly egregious. In the Pentagon's 2020 report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China, it focuses on China's military preparedness as a threat to American national security. But China's military and security activities are a response to US military and security challenges and are entirely defensive in nature.

It is not China that has hundreds of military bases scattered across the globe and locates military installations on America's doorstep as the US does towards China. And it is not China that interferes in US domestic affairs as the US does in regard to China. The hypocrisy and double standards that the US employs to accuse other nations of violating the ‘international rules-based order’ should be as clear as clear can be to any impartial observer. It is the US that should be condemned for its transgressions and threats to world peace, not China.

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Dennis Etler is an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs. He’s a former professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California. He has a PhD in anthropology from the University of California in Berkeley. He recorded this article for Press TV website.

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