Joe Biden’s democracy summit, organized to bring together countries sharing the same values in the face of authoritarian regimes, has barely concluded, and China – which was not invited – sharply replies. ” The “democracy” has long since become a “weapon of mass destruction” used by the United States to interfere in other countries ”, denounced, on Saturday, December 11, the spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry in a statement published online. He also accuses Washington of having “Fomented “color revolutions” abroad “.
China had been left out of the virtual two-day summit, along with other countries like Russia and Hungary, and bluntly accused the US president of stoking ideological divisions inherited from the Cold War. The spokesman for Chinese diplomacy also assures that the summit was organized to “Draw lines of ideological prejudices, instrumentalize and arm democracy … [et] incite division and confrontation ”. China, for its part, is committed to “Resist and resolutely oppose all kinds of pseudo-democracy”.
Ahead of the summit, Beijing had stepped up its propaganda campaign lambasting democracy, described as corrupt and a failure. In a white paper released last week, which aimed to bolster its legitimacy, the communist regime, which had become increasingly authoritarian under Xi Jinping’s presidency, praised its own model, that of a “Integral popular democracy”.
Chinese officials sanctioned
Tensions between the two greatest powers in the world have worsened in recent years, against a backdrop of commercial and technological competition, human rights and the issue of Xinjiang and Taiwan.
The US Treasury on Friday sanctioned two senior Chinese officials for violating human rights in the Xinjiang region and blacklisted Chinese artificial intelligence company SenseTime for its facial recognition technology targeting the Uyghur minority.
Taiwan, an island which has its own government but is claimed by Beijing, was invited to the summit, which was a clear provocation towards its neighbor. But Beijing scored a victory during the Joe Biden summit, with Nicaragua’s decision to sever its diplomatic alliance with Taiwan in favor of recognition of China.
After this announcement, Taiwan has only fourteen diplomatic allies. In response, the US State Department called “All countries which attach importance to democratic institutions” To “Broaden their commitment” with the island.
