China's vision of the world is in stark contrast to America's

By Dennis Etler

President Xi Jinping of China gave the keynote address at the 2021 Boao Forum for Asia, held from April 18 to 21 in the coastal resort of Boao on China’s island province of Hainan. His speech titled "Pulling Together Through Adversity and Toward a Shared Future for All" put forth China’s vision for a world in which all nations pull together for the common good. One in which no nation seeks hegemony and no nation assumes the role of unilateral protector of the global commons.

While talking in general terms there is no question that President Xi was referring to the one country that has taken upon itself the role of final arbiter of how nations behave both at home and abroad. It is the United States that has unilaterally assumed a position of authority, dictating to others how they should conduct their domestic and foreign affairs. It should come as no surprise that in so doing American policy advantages itself and disadvantages others.

The US has had a predominance of power ever since the demise of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc of countries that it led. For three decades the US held sway internationally, imposing its rule as it saw fit, becoming in fact a global hegemon. What did it do with its unrivalled power? Did it seek to resolve tensions and promote peace and prosperity? To the contrary, it waged one war after another, it intervened in one nation after another, it imposed economic sanctions and embargoes on whichever country it deemed a threat to its own power and prerogatives.

And how does it justify and rationalize its aggressive behavior? It does so by saying that it is protecting so-called “universal values” and its own interpretation of “human rights.” Again it should come as no surprise that its “universal values” are the values that the US and its allies espouse and the “human rights” it champions are the political rights it uses to manipulate and control the regimes it has installed.

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At the same time the fundamental “human rights” of its own people has come under assault from within, a result of poor governance and indifference. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed all the ills of American society, its systemic racism, its disregard for public health and extreme disparities in wealth and access to adequate housing, healthcare and education for tens of millions of its disadvantaged citizens.

Yet, the US feels it can meddle in other countries internal affairs and dictate how they should be managed, as if it is the paragon of virtue. While declaring that it will hold other countries accountable for their behavior it absolves itself of any accountability for its own actions.

President Xi, on the other hand, presented an entirely different vision of the world in his address. He called for greater global economic integration and warned against a new cold war and ideological confrontation in "whatever form."

"We must not let the rules set by one or a few countries be imposed on others, or allow unilateralism pursued by certain countries to set the pace for the whole world." Moreover, Xi emphasized that, “ we must reject the cold-war and zero-sum mentality and oppose a new “Cold War” and ideological confrontation in whatever forms. In state-to-state relations, the principles of equality, mutual respect and mutual trust must be put front and center. Bossing others around or meddling in others’ internal affairs would not get one any support. We must advocate peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, which are common values of humanity, and encourage exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations to promote the progress of human civilization.”

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Xi’s vision of the world and how it should be could not be more different that of US President Biden who, like his predecessors, wants to impose a Western model of economics, politics and social relations on a diverse world of independent, sovereign nations with their own deep-seated histories and cultural values that have stood the test of time. It must be left up to each nation to chart its own destiny and path forward. No outside force can nor should attempt to do so. China’s President understands that. The US President does not.

* 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 wrote this article for Press TV website.

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