By Zhong Sheng
Unilateral sanction has long been a typical practice of the U.S. diplomacy, and lately, the White
House once again played its same old trick.
It arbitrarily threatened to impose sanctions on Hong Kong as China progressed with its national
security legislation in the special administrative region, staging another farce showing how
indifferent it is to the basic norms governing international relations.
However, the Chinese government and people will never allow any force to challenge the
sovereignty, security, and development interests of their country. Any attempt to interfere with
China’s domestic affairs was, is and will be destined to fail.
The more hypes the U.S. makes, the more it deviates from international justice. The national
security legislation for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is China’s
domestic affair, so the country has the reasons and legitimacy to propel it, and the legislation
conforms to the practical interests of all Chinese people, including the compatriots in Hong Kong.
Obviously, certain American politicians are unwilling to see the long-term stability and
development of Hong Kong, so they wracked their brains to fabricate accusations and threaten to
impose sanctions.
Washington imposed visa restriction on Chinese students and threatened to investigate Chinese
enterprises listed on the U.S. financial markets, which seriously violated the market competition
rules and ran counter to the hope of both Chinese and Americans to carry out friendly exchanges.
Such practices will surely further damage the China-U.S. economic and trade relations, as well as
the social foundation for the two countries’ bilateral ties.
Where have the high-profile and self-proclaimed openness and liberty of the U.S. gone? That’s a
question raised by more and more people. Facts prove that international justice and diplomatic
principles have never existed in the mind of some U.S. politicians who cherry-pick whatever that
suits their own interests and abandon whatever that does not.
“To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” The sanction game of the U.S. is nothing
new to the world. When dealing with international affairs, the U.S. is always obsessed with a “me-
first” mentality and supremacy, arbitrarily implementing unilateral sanctions on other countries
relying on its certain advantages. Lacking the awareness of international rules, the U.S. has
become a destructive factor undermining normal international relations.
Nicolai N. Petro, professor at the University of Rhode Island, noted in an article titled “America is
Addicted to Sanctions” that “the best way to think about the role of sanctions in American foreign
policy is to regard it as an addiction.” He put it ironically that as “Americans’ view of the world
shrinks to the confines of the Washington Beltway,” sanctions “provide the only semblance of
calm, the only relief that politicians can rely on, and so resort to them becomes habitual.”
Some U.S. politicians have triggered huge amounts of questioning and criticism for designating
enemies based on lies and forming cliques with other countries for confrontation, especially the
hysteric antagonistic remarks and practices they made when dealing with China.
Many analysts have gone right to the heart of the matter, saying these politicians are addicted to
acquiring private political gains by building a “China intimidator” image. U.S. Professor Jeffrey
D. Sachs at Columbia University called American right-wing force’s accusation on China
“reckless and dangerous,” warning they “could push the world to conflict.”
Former U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus said that the U.S. government’s anti-China
rhetoric reminded him of the McCarthy era. Joseph McCarthy, known for his unusual deceptive
approaches that combined extreme boldness and crafty lies, had pushed the U.S. into extreme
hatred and a nightmare of rampant persecution.
Experiences shall be drawn from history. The U.S. addiction to sanctions is only able to entertain
Washington itself, and is a total waste of time, because the world is no longer run by zero-sum
games as some American politicians assume. The international system has its rules and justice,
and now the world is no longer controlled by the U.S. supremacy.
Frequent maximum pressure, defunding and withdrawals from international organizations
remained a major diplomatic strategy of the U.S. in recent years. However, few countries and
international organizations would really succumb to the U.S. On the contrary, such strategy is
actually consuming the U.S.’ credit and influence in the international community.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov remarked that issues related to Hong Kong are entirely
China’s internal affairs. The U.S. threat to impose sanctions on China in response to China’s NPC
deliberation on Hong Kong-related national security legislation fully exposed America’s sense of
superiority and impunity, which will not make Washington a reliable dialogue partner on any other
issues with China, he added.
When the COVID-19 pandemic is posing unprecedented public health and economic development
challenges to the world, China-U.S. cooperation bears more significance for the world to
overcome the current difficulties. The U.S. side shall enhance anti-pandemic cooperation with
China, and make its relationship with China rooted in mutual respect and cooperation, rather than
confrontation and conflict.
We advise the U.S. to stop its sanction game, halt its hegemonic practices, and discard Cold-War
mentality and ideological prejudices as early as possible. It had better immediately stop meddling
in China’s internal affairs and not to go further down the wrong path.
