Asian Angle | Why weaponising democracy against China will backfire on the US
- Washington’s Summit for Democracy has made half the world a pariah by defining as ‘authoritarian’ any country that does not share its choice of political system
- But countries have grown sceptical of the West’s motives. It’s time the West accepted there is value in plurality
What’s more, the US defines “authoritarian” as any country that refuses to follow the prescriptions of the West with regard to the political system it adopts.
Yet the United Nations Charter, signed in 1945, did not mention the word democracy – because it is each nation’s sovereign right to pursue its own political system. And a nation’s choice is legitimised solely by its people.
America’s divisive exercise – the Summit for Democracy, to be held on December 9, 2021, in Washington – goes against the principles of the United Nations Charter.
This means that of the 193 countries in the world, the US believes 92 are undeserving of its definition of international recognition and are essentially pariah states. That is almost half the world. But the world possesses a diversity of political systems that we must all learn to accept and work with to make multilateral cooperation more effective. Dividing the world into two camps is limiting, regressive, and a reflection of a Cold War mentality that is counter-productive.
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