Paint a portrait of America: Don Quixote in the Great War windmill

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee of the US Congress recently passed the "Strategic Competition Act of 2021", targeting only one strategic competitor: China. The bill is full of Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice, arbitrarily distorting and slandering China's development strategy and domestic and foreign policies, grossly interfering in China's internal affairs, and having sinister intentions to harm others and harm oneself.

It is such a "paper full of absurd words" bill, which will be submitted to the Senate and the House of Representatives for consideration, and will eventually be sent to the White House for Biden to sign. Once the bill is implemented, the United States' choice of "confrontation with China" will be raised from the policy level to a strategic level.

In addition to the two parties in the US Congress pushing for "confrontation with China", the White House claimed on the table that it would not seek confrontation with China, but from top to bottom, it must call China, often saying that China "wants to eat The lunch of the United States" and threatening that "China will not be allowed to surpass the United States." The Intention of the United States to suppress China in all aspects has been fully exposed. It's time to paint a picture of The American crackdown on China!

From now on, the reference to the quick review column launched a series of comments "Paint a Portrait of America", the following is the first: Don Quixote of the Great War Windmill.

Reference News Network reported on May 12 (text/Xiangyang)

On the day of the release of the Strategic Competition Act of 2021, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee boasted in a statement that the bill represents "unprecedented" bipartisan cooperation in the United States and will mobilize all the strategic, economic and diplomatic tools of the United States to counter China's rising global power. Judging from the content of the bill, the United States should make a stumbling block and a condom for China, and vigorously engage in vicious competition and zero-sum games. From this point of view, the so-called strategic competition in the United States is not an athletics race in which you chase after me, but more like a gladiatorial race between you and me.

The United States regards China as an adversary, even an enemy, and its style is like the famous Spanish writer Cervantes's Don Quixote. Don Quixote frantically searches for an opponent or enemy on the way to "fighting righteousness". If there is no enemy or opponent, you have to think out of thin air. So he even had to challenge the windmills that posed no threat to him.

Today's China is to the United States what a windmill is to Don Quixote. China's development does not pose a threat to the United States. China adheres to the path of peaceful development and does not accept the logic of "a strong country must be hegemonic". China's development is not to surpass anyone, to replace anyone, nor to compete with anyone for the world's boss, but to constantly surpass itself and become a better China, so that Chinese people can live a happier life.

Like Don Quixote, the United States has a lingering "enemy" complex. American political scientist David Rotkopf once said, "Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has been indomitable in search of its enemies. By 'seeking' I don't mean finding and defeating them. I mean, the United States seems to need an enemy from the bottom of its heart... Many Americans suffer from severe and untreated enemy dependence. Politicians love the enemy because tapping the enemy helps to stir up public sentiment and divert their attention from domestic problems; the defense industry likes the enemy because the enemy helps them make money; and the academics like the enemy because the enemy makes their publications sell well."

Not only after the end of the Cold War, but also the "enemy" complex of the United States has a long history. Looking back at the history of the United States for more than 240 years, the United States has established one or more enemies in every historical period. At the beginning of independence, the United States regarded Britain as an enemy. After entering the imperialist stage, the United States regarded Spain and other old European imperialist countries as enemies. Later in World War I, the United States joined the Allies as enemies of the Allies. During World War II, the United States joined the anti-fascist camp and fought against fascist countries such as Japan, Germany, and Italy. During the Cold War, the United States saw the Soviet Union as an enemy. After the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the United States lost its real strategic opponent and began to seek and shape its enemies. After 9/11, the United States has long regarded terrorism as an enemy. Now, 20 years later, the United States has forgotten its scars and is trying to shift its attention from counter-terrorism to great power competition, viewing China and Russia as the most important strategic opponents, and its hostility to China is particularly severe.

Like Don Quixote, the United States seems to "not survive" without an adversary or an enemy, and therefore needs to be artificially shaped. Why? The American political scientist Samuel Huntington once said bluntly, "Because of the forces within the United States that emphasize difference, diversity and multiculturalism, and there are national and racial divisions, it is perhaps more necessary than most countries to maintain its unity against others."

In the United States today, there are many problems. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has not subsided, the racist disease is terminal, social divisions are intensifying, and bipartisan politics is seriously polarized. At this moment, the United States desperately needs an "external enemy" to maintain its unity. It is in this context that some people in the United States have begun to establish China as a "scarecrow", even if China does not actually pose a threat to it, it still wants to portray China as an adversary or enemy.

China will not dance with the United States. China has repeatedly stressed its commitment to developing a relationship of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation with the United States. However, there is a danger in the United States deliberately portraying China as an adversary or enemy, because international politics often stages "self-fulfilling prophecies." There is no "Thucydides Trap" in the world, but if some people in the United States repeatedly misjudge strategically, they may dig a "Thucydides Trap" for themselves.

Of course, China will not allow the United States to come and will continue to firmly safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests. When the United States raises the spear of the Strategic Competition Act of 2021 and stabs at China, China must have a response. As Cervantes writes in the novel: "Don Quixote stabbed the wings of the windmill with one shot; the wings turned violently in the wind, breaking the spear into several pieces, and with a burst of strength, Don Quixote and his men took the horse straight out; Don Quixote rolled to the ground, and he was embarrassed." ”

May the United States not repeat don Quixote's mistakes!

Source: Reference News Network

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