China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin

China has denounced the United States for measuring democracy with its own yardstick, and deciding whether a country is democratic or not based on its own model.

The US held a two-day virtual ‘Summit for Democracy’ on Thursday and Friday with a declared aim of focusing on renewing democracy in the United States and around the world. Washington invited 100 countries but excluded China and Russia, accusing their governments of autocracy.

Beijing and Moscow lambasted the summit, branding it as a product of Washington’s Cold War mentality that will create new fissures in the international community. The summit was also criticized by mainstream media for seeking selfish gains instead of real democracy.

On Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin deplored the White House for measuring democracy with its own yardstick, stressing that Washington is a destroyer of democracy rather than being its defender.

I’ve noticed there are media reports that the international community gave the ’summit’ a cold reaction. Videos of the ’summit’ have been barely watched on social media platforms. On the contrary, those showing the US going for military intervention and killing innocent civilians in the name of democracy have gone viral online, the Chinese official said at a press conference.

It once again demonstrates that the US pursuit of its own interests under the banner of democracy finds no support. The ’Summit for Democracy’ exactly betrayed US true nature as a destroyer of democracy while stripping it of its disguise as a defender of democracy, Wang stated.

He also called on all countries across the world to work together to deal with global issues, so as to press ahead with shaping a community with a shared future for all the people of the world.

Against the backdrop of a protracted COVID-19 pandemic, the fragile global economic recovery and complex and grave global challenges such as terrorism and climate change, what the world needs is not to define which countries are democratic and which are not in accordance with the standards of a certain country, still less to stigmatize and oppress other countries, impose unilateral sanctions or engage in military intervention in the name of democracy, Wang said.

The Chinese official also called for the promotion of peace, development, equity, justice, democracy, and freedom, all common values of humanity, while abiding by the norms governing international relations on the basis of the UN Charter.

On November 26, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov and his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang, in a joint op-ed published in the National Interest, condemned the summit, describing it as a product of the US’s Cold War mentality that would create new divisions in the international community. They also censured the United States for imposing its own interpretation of democracy on the international community and its invitation of like-minded countries to the summit. They further stressed that the world needs the coexistence of countries with different ideologies.