The "Seven Deadly Sins" of the U.S. Alliance System

Source: People's Daily - People's Daily

(Continued from the 16th edition of August 4)

The Fourth Deadly Sin: Destruction

For a long time, the United States and its allies have been keen to subvert the regimes of other countries, cultivate regional proxies, deliberately create confrontation, only break through, disregard international law and international rules, wantonly infringe on the rights and interests of other countries, and become the biggest saboteur of regional stability.

◆ The United States, together with its allies, has vigorously engaged in "color revolutions" and interfered in the internal affairs of other countries.

In his book Covert Regime Change: America's Secret Cold War, An Associate Professor at Boston College, O'Rourke wrote: In the 42 years from 1947 to 1989 alone, the United States carried out 64 covert regime changes and 6 public actions. After the end of the Cold War, the United States even more brazenly pursued interventionism and frequently engaged in "color revolutions", including: at the end of 2003, on the grounds of "cheating" in the parliamentary election, georgian President Shevardnadze was forced to resign and support the opposition Saakashvili to be elected president, that is, the "Rose Revolution"; in October 2004, it concocted the "fraud" scandal in the Ukrainian general election, incited Ukrainian youth to march in the streets, and supported Yushchenko to be elected president in the re-election, that is, the "Orange Revolution"; in March 2005, Inciting the Kyrgyz opposition to protest the results of the parliamentary elections eventually turned into riots, and President Akayev was forced to flee and announced his resignation, the "Tulip Revolution". In the past 10 years, the United States has invaded more than 20 countries or instigated regime changes in relevant countries, and has repeatedly intervened in and operated "color revolutions" in some countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and West Asia and North Africa. On October 20, 2020, Naryshkin, head of The Russian Federation's Foreign Intelligence Service, said that the United States was planning to set off a "color revolution" in Moldova. On February 18, 2021, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Peskov said that the european court of human rights's decision to demand the immediate release of opposition politician Navalny Navarine was biased and raised many questions. Russian Justice Minister Trichenko said that the decision of the European Court of Human Rights has no legal basis and is a major attempt to interfere in Russia's internal litigation affairs. In April 2021, a declassified diplomatic document in the British "Morning Star" article showed that the United States and the United Kingdom participated in planning a military coup in Bolivia to obtain lithium metal resources. After president Morales of Bolivia for Socialism was forced to resign, the British Embassy in Bolivia supported the Polish new regime, and the deadly violence that followed the coup was condemned by human rights groups.

◆ The United States and its allies have left an unmanageable mess in the Middle East and other regions.

The United States and its allies have frequently created chaos in the Middle East, seriously weakening the strength of regional countries, resulting in the expansion of al-Qaida and the Islamic State, and the region falling into a security and governance deficit that is difficult to eliminate. Soldiers of the United States, Britain, Australia, and other coalition forces have run amok in the Middle East, and the atrocities of torturing prisoners, raping, plundering, and indiscriminately killing civilians are not uncommon, and their brutality and cruelty are no less than those of terrorists.

In the Middle East, the United States is accustomed to pulling one faction to fight the other, deliberately creating regional contradictions, dividing the Middle East countries, and vigorously engaging in "offshore balance" on its own. In recent years, the United States has high-profiled the "Iranian threat" and sectarian confrontation in the Gulf, forcing regional countries to choose sides. On the one hand, the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the Iranian nuclear agreement, demanding that Iran's missile program and regional policy issues be included in the scope of negotiations; on the other hand, it made a presumption of guilt against Iraq, linking all incidents such as attacks on regional oil facilities and oil tanker explosions to Iraq or its proxies, with the intention of sitting on the "evil deeds" in the Iranian region and provoking the sense of insecurity of regional countries. At the beginning of 2020, the United States brazenly attacked and killed Sulaimani, commander of the Al-Quds Force of the Iraqi Revolutionary Guards, and regional tensions suddenly escalated.

◆ When Britain and France were forced to end colonial rule, they laid various scourges for the continuation of their own influence, and still have "colonial obsessions".

"Divide and rule" was an important means of British colonial administration. The first is to leave behind india-Pakistan contradictions. After the British occupied India, they used caste and sectarian contradictions to vigorously stir up relations between various classes and social groups in India in order to strengthen their own role and maintain colonial rule. In June 1947, Governor-General Mountbatten proposed a plan to divide India into Hindu-dominated Hindustan and Islamist-dominated Pakistan, to which power would be transferred separately. After the partition of India and Pakistan, there was a lot of friction and conflict between the two religious believers, and the contradictions and hatred between them deepened, and they triggered war on the issue of Kashmir's ownership. The second is to promote the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Palestine was formerly a dependency of the Ottoman Empire. During World War I, the British, out of strategic necessity, supported the Arabs in Palestine against the Ottoman Empire on the one hand, and the Zionist Movement on the other hand, in favor of the establishment of a national homeland for Jews in Palestine. Since then, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has continued and has not ceased. The third is to create contradictions in Cyprus. Cyprus is close to Greece and Turkey, and the Greek and Turkish communities on the island regard the two countries as mother countries. In the process of cyprus seeking independence, the British repeated the trick to stir up contradictions between Greece and Turkey and promote the internationalization of the Cypriot issue. After the outbreak of armed conflict between the Greek and Turkish ethnic groups, a situation of division between the north and the south was formed in Cyprus, and the contradictions between the two ethnic groups have not been resolved so far.

The "neo-interventionism" of European countries has been rampant, and the leaders of African countries have vigorously engaged in "those who follow us and those who oppose us will perish", instigating and even sending troops to intervene in civil wars such as Côte d'Ivoire behind their backs, undermining peace and stability in the subregion. Britain, France, Germany, and the Netherlands sent warships to the South China Sea to flaunt their might. The European Parliament, the Czech Republic, and others have issued Taiwan-related resolutions, arranged for officials and parliamentarians to visit Taiwan, and openly raised their eyes for Taiwan independence elements, seriously undermining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. Under the banner of "safeguarding human rights," the European Parliament awarded the "Sakharov Prize" to criminals sentenced by the Chinese judicial organs according to law, grossly interfering in China's internal affairs and infringing on China's judicial sovereignty. In March 2021, based on lies and false information, the EU imposed unilateral sanctions on relevant Individuals and Entities in China under the pretext of the so-called Xinjiang human rights issue, grossly interfering in China's internal affairs, flagrantly violating international law and basic norms governing international relations, and seriously harming China-EU relations.

The Fifth Deadly Sin: Lying

In order to safeguard their own interests and exclude and suppress dissidents, the United States and its allies have lied and made a lot of money, concocted false evidence and false statements without any bottom line, and used lies as an excuse to deceive the world and provoke conflicts and disputes again and again.

◆ The United States used "washing powder" as an excuse to provoke the Iraq war with allies.

On 5 February 2003, the United Nations Security Council met to discuss the situation in Iraq. At the meeting, then-US Secretary of State Powell took out a test tube filled with white powder, claiming that it was evidence that Iraq was developing chemical weapons. On March 20, 2003, the U.S.-British coalition launched the Iraq War on this ground until December 2011, but the United States has not been able to confirm the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. In a 2014 interview with the media, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to western countries' constant accusations of Russia's secret annexation of eastern Ukraine: "What about the evidence? Take it out for us to see. The whole world remembers the evidence presented by the U.S. Secretary of State about Iraq's chemical weapons of mass destruction as the bottle containing an unidentified object, which was not surprisingly laundry detergent. ”

◆ The United States made up the story of "war hero" Lynch.

In April 2003, the U.S. military unveiled the heroic deeds of a female soldier named Jessica Lynch on the battlefields of Iraq: Lynch was ambushed by his comrades, and Lynch resisted desperately until he was captured. Later, the U.S. military also said that Lynch was raped and abused after being captured. As soon as the news came out, the whole United States was indignant. The United States immediately sent special forces to rescue Lynch and quickly rescued him. CNN filmed the entire operation and released footage of the rescue operation a few days later. Through this operation, the morale of the US military was greatly boosted, the patriotic enthusiasm of the American people was instantly ignited, and Lynch's deeds were also made into a movie.

In reality, however, Lynch did not fire a single shot in the war. After the ambush, the military vehicle in which Lynch and his comrades were riding was hit and crashed into another car, causing Lynch to be seriously injured. Iraqi medical staff rescued Lynch and took the initiative to contact the U.S. military to hope that they would pick him up. The U.S. military rejected their request. According to the recollection of the hospital doctors, the hospital leaders informed them of the US plan in advance, and the US military "performed" to rescue Lynch.

In April 2007, Lynch presented the truth of the matter at a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives. Lynch said he was seriously injured and captured, treated well and treated well by Iraqi medical staff, and that the U.S. Department of Defense was using him to make a fake hero propaganda documentary.

The US-led NATO used genocidal lies to blatantly launch the Kosovo War.

On March 24, 1999, the UNITED-led NATO launched an air strike against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and the 78-day Kosovo War broke out. More than 2,000 people were killed, more than 6,000 injured, nearly 1 million refugees were turned into refugees, and the economic damage caused to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia exceeded $200 billion. On April 7, 1999, then U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen said the mass killings in Kosovo were appalling and showed that it was a just struggle to end genocide. Then-US President Bill Clinton said: "At least 100,000 [Kosovo Albanians] are missing. NATO has a plan to stop ethnic cleansing and massacres. CNN reported that Clinton accused the Serbs of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo of akin to the Holocaust of Jews during World War II, trying to build momentum for his decision to send U.S. troops to fight in the Yugoslav Federation. The Washington Times reported in November 1999 that the Clinton administration was accused of exaggerating the number of ethnic Albanians killed by the Serbs. American writer Joseph Rafah accused the coalition of exaggerating the number of Albanian deaths in order to justify the bombing campaign by "stopping genocide." In addition, the UN Charter does not allow military intervention in other sovereign states, and there are a few exceptions that require the UN Security Council to decide, but the US and NATO operations are not authorized by the UN.

The United States and its allies have initiated a war in Syria by self-directing their own armed forces.

In early 2011, anti-government demonstrations in Syria spread across the country, escalating clashes between demonstrators and government forces that turned into a civil war. With the financial support of the United States, the Syrian Civil Defense Organization (White Helmets) directed and acted in films of civilians being attacked by air strikes and chemical weapons, pointing the finger at the Syrian government. The governments of the United States, Britain and France further claimed that the Syrian government used chemical weapons to attack civilians and targeted air strikes against relevant targets in Syria. A 2019 United Nations report concluded that the U.S.-Western coalition may not have targeted specific military targets, or failed to take the necessary precautions, which could constitute war crimes. Russia's permanent representative to the European Union, Vladimir Chizov, said the White Helmets had repeatedly used the trick to swindle the Syrian and Russian governments. The White Helmets train these "actors" professionally, who have appeared in several different videos of chemical weapons attacks. According to Russian media and Syrian state media, in addition to so-called humanitarian assistance, the "White Helmets" have long falsified news and confused the public, and have been heavily funded by the United States, Britain, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and other Western countries.

◆ The United States and its allies have lied about the new crown pneumonia epidemic in an attempt to divert accusations of ineffective response to the epidemic in their own country.

Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the governments of the United States and other Western countries have not only failed to follow the WHO guidelines to take effective epidemic prevention measures, but have constantly accused and questioned China, from watching the fire from the other side to waiting for the so-called "herd immunity", using a series of lies to paralyze their own people, including "the virus is the Wuhan virus laboratory leak", "the virus originated in Wuhan", "the Chinese government's slow response led to the spread of the epidemic to the world". Trump and Pompeo have repeatedly claimed to have seen new evidence that the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The Multi-Agency Collaborative Environment, one of the main contractors of the U.S. Department of Defense, released a 30-page core data report full of errors and omissions, claiming that a combination of social media information, satellite imagery, mobile phone positioning data analysis, and some kind of "dangerous incident" occurred in October 2019 at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. At the beginning of 2021, WHO experts went to China to carry out research on the traceability of the new crown virus, and the expert group believed that it was extremely unlikely that the laboratory leaked the virus, but the United States and the West ignored and publicly questioned the expert group report. According to the WHO website, as early as 3 January 2020, Chinese officials provided WHO with information on clusters of "virus of unknown cause pneumonia" detected in Wuhan; on 5 January, WHO shared detailed information on clusters of pneumonia of unknown cause through the International Health Regulations (2005) event information system accessible to all Member States, and recommended that Member States take precautions to reduce the risk of acute respiratory infections. However, the Western countries at that time did not take any effective preventive measures.

◆ The United States slanders China's "militarization" of the South China Sea, and the United Allies strengthen military deployment in the South China Sea.

In recent years, on the one hand, the United States has frequently carried out so-called "freedom of navigation" in the South China Sea and strengthened military deployments in conjunction with Allies such as Japan and the Philippines, and on the other hand, it has accused China of "militarizing" the South China Sea and misleading international public opinion. According to incomplete statistics, from 2017 to 2020, the Number of "Freedom of Navigation Operations" in the South China Sea by the United States was as high as 15 times. In addition, the United States has strengthened the deployment of military forces in the area around the South China Sea, especially the allocation of high-precision strategic weapons, and continues to seek to strengthen military partnerships with the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan and other countries, while striving to seek cooperation with allied partners in the Asia-Pacific region. An Article on the Australian East Asia Forum website on May 2, 2017, pointed out that some Western analysts have favored the United States in their research on the South China Sea issue, leading the media to distort the facts. The United States confuses commercial navigation with provocative military intelligence gathering and surveillance activities, and then claims that China is interfering with U.S. warships and aircraft in its exclusive economic zone and above, violating the norms of free navigation.

◆ The United States fabricated a big lie about the "genocide" in Xinjiang to win over allies to sanction China.

In the past two years, the United States has co-opted some anti-China forces in the West and, based on the so-called "Xinjiang-related research reports" and the experiences of some so-called "witnesses" fabricated by Zheng Guoen and other pseudo-scholars, concocted and disseminated a large amount of false information related to Xinjiang, slandered the Chinese Government for carrying out "genocide" against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, slandered China's Xinjiang policy, grossly interfered in China's internal affairs, and announced the imposition of sanctions on Chinese entities and individuals in an attempt to deceive the international community and interfere with and undermine Xinjiang's stable development. The US independent news website "Gray Area" and other articles have been published many times to expose the lies of anti-China activist Zheng Guoen's abuse of data, distortion of information, and the use of false "testimonies" to fabricate "genocide" in Xinjiang. French writer Maxime Vivas published the book "The End of Uyghur Fake News", which proves with his real experience in Xinjiang that the so-called "genocide" of the Uighurs is pure nonsense.

◆ The United States and its allies have vigorously smeared China's "Belt and Road" initiative and fabricated lies such as China's "neo-colonialism" and "debt trap".

The United States and its allies have wantonly smeared China's "Belt and Road" initiative, and some Western media and politicians have deliberately ignored the positive role of Chinese investment in promoting the economic development of relevant regions, hyped up China's so-called "neo-colonialism" and "new imperialism", and spread false conclusions such as that relevant countries are falling into China's "debt trap" and that Chinese investment will only benefit China. Scholars from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard University in the United States published an article in the Atlantic Monthly, pointing out that the "China debt trap" is a lie fabricated by Us and Western politicians. For example, the Sri Lanka Hambantota Port Project, which has been repeatedly hyped by the Us and Western media, is the first time that Canadian and Danish companies proposed to invest, build and operate the port in Sri Lanka, but they could not take action for a long time, and then Chinese companies won the development rights through fair competition. Among the international sovereign debt faced by Sri Lanka, Japan and the World Bank are the big creditors, and the debt of hambantota port accounted for only 5% of Sri Lanka's external debt in 2017. Sri Lanka's former central bank governor said hambantota port debt was not the cause of the country's financial difficulties. For the willingness of developing countries to pursue development, US and Western politicians and media have long been selectively deaf.

In order to cooperate with the UNITED States in suppressing China and economic "decoupling", Australia fabricated lies to hype up the "China threat theory" and "China intervention theory", successively introduced a series of "anti-foreign interference" legislation, the "Foreign Relations Law" and other bills, rejected a number of Chinese enterprises' investment in Australia on the grounds of national security, and tore up the "Belt and Road" cooperation documents signed by Victoria and China.

◆ The United States and its allies continue to export conspiracies and lies to the world in the name of "human rights" and "democracy."

The former european suzerainty promised the African colonies that Western-style democracy was the "gospel" of development, but in fact it plunged African countries into the trap of "chaos in every election" and "development deficit". Europe claims to have the largest scale of aid to Africa, but it often "pays lip service but does not come to the truth", either "money is not in place" or "covers the mine and does not mine", which slows down Africa's development. After the "Arab Spring", the EU promised to increase its aid to Arab countries year by year, but the fact showed a downward trend, and in 2014 the EU only implemented 20% of the quota for that year. Europe prides itself on being the largest contributor to the COVID-19 Vaccine Implementation Plan (COVAX) platform, but so far exporting less than 5% of its own production to developing countries.

On 19 April 2021, the UN Human Rights Council's Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent and other special mechanisms issued a joint statement strongly opposing the report issued by the Uk Commission on Racial and Ethnic Inequality, saying that the report distorted and fabricated facts and would further exacerbate British racism and racial discrimination. The report defends "white supremacy" doctrine by glorifying racial hierarchies, claiming that systemic racism exists in the UK, that racism is the product of the imagination or isolated incidents of people of African descent, and ignores the problems of systemic racism in the UK pointed out by international human rights experts, including deep-rooted inequalities in health care, education, employment, housing, law enforcement, criminal justice and other fields. The statement noted that the Commission's report attempts to whitewash the history of the African slave trade in Britain, avoiding the brutality of slave owners and the fact that they have accumulated wealth, social resources and political influence through the enslavement of blacks from generation to generation, is a deliberate distortion of history that will lead to greater racism and racial discrimination.

The Sixth Deadly Sin: Shielding

In recent years, the United States has used its relatives to judge right and wrong, awarded rewards and punishments from near and far, shielded, protected, and connived at many bad behaviors of its allies, and even manipulated and exploited the weaknesses and evil deeds of its allies to achieve its insidious geopolitical goals.

The United States has disregarded the interests of all mankind and the opposition of the international community and has allowed Japan to discharge nuclear-contaminated water into the sea.

On April 13, 2021, the Japanese government announced its decision to dump more than 1 million tons of nuclear contaminated water caused by the fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant nuclear accident into the Pacific Ocean, causing widespread doubts and concerns in Japan and neighboring countries. There is almost no criticism in the US and Western media, and many Western international organizations and politicians even defend Japan. The U.S. side expressed support for Japan's decision, saying that Japan "appears to have adopted an approach that is consistent with globally recognized nuclear safety standards." U.S. Secretary of State Blinken tweeted to thank Japan for its "transparent efforts" to deal with nuclearly contaminated water.

The international community has expressed many doubts about the support of the United States for Japan. On April 15, the Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteurs on Toxic Substances and Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, and the Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment issued a joint statement expressing deep regret over Japan's decision to discharge 1 million tons of nuclearly contaminated water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean, saying that this move would affect the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in the Pacific and pose a great threat to the human rights of people in Japan and other countries. Relevant experts said that considering that the discharge of nuclear contaminated water into the ocean will have an impact on the lives and environment of many people, the relevant decision of the Japanese government is of great concern. In an opinion piece in the Anchorage Daily, the U.S. marine conservationist Rike Steiner urged the U.S. government to immediately halt Japan's emissions program and advocated for the international community to appoint a commission of inquiry independent of the International Atomic Energy Agency to examine issues related to Fukushima's treatment of nuclearly contaminated water and provide transparent, independent, and scientific advice. Moreover, the United States ostensibly supports Japan's nuclear discharge of contaminated water, but in fact has long been strictly regulating the import of Japanese products. In March 2021, after the US Food and Drug Administration's FDA "Import Warning No. 99-33" was updated, the import of some agricultural, aquaculture, aquatic products and additional products in Japan was still restricted due to nuclear radiation and other reasons.

◆ The United States covered Japan's military deregulation and promoted Japan to lift the ban on the "right of collective self-defense."

As a result of the crime of aggression committed during World War II, in accordance with the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation and the Unconditional Surrender of the Japanese Government, Japan should completely eradicate militarism and completely disarm the land, sea and air forces. However, in the early days of the Cold War, in order to contain the socialist camp, the United States supported and rearmed Japan, opened a wide range of militarists who had committed war crimes, and acquiesced to the return of some people to the Japanese political arena. The United States has separately concluded the "Japan-U.S. Security Treaty" with Japan, signed and revised the "Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation," and continuously expanded the scope of military operations of the Japan-U.S. alliance. The United States has condoned the Japanese government's efforts to introduce a new security law and promote the revision of Article 9 of the Constitution. On July 1, 2014, the Provisional Cabinet of the Japanese Government passed a Cabinet resolution amending the Interpretation of the Constitution and lifting the ban on the right to collective self-defense. Then-US Secretary of Defense Hagel subsequently issued a statement supporting the Japanese government's decision to lift the ban on the right to collective self-defense and welcoming the Japanese government's new policy on the right to collective self-defense. Foreign media analysis said that the United States is the most important driving force and key factor for Japan to violate the pacifist constitution and re-arm its military.

◆ The United States shielded the crimes of Unit 731.

After the end of World War II, the United States successively sent germ warfare experts from Fort Detrick to Japan within a few years to learn about Japan's biological weapons such as bacteria from the main members of Unit 731, including Shiro Ishii, the leader of Unit 731. The United States paid 250,000 yen for the germ warfare data of Unit 731. The United States even hid from the world the heinous crimes of Shiro Ishii and Unit 731, and made Shiro Ishii a biological weapons adviser to Fort Detrick.

According to media reports, on the condition that the United States exempt unit 731 from war criminals of the Japanese army invading China from war responsibility, obtained data on unit 731's human experiments, bacteriological experiments, germ warfare, and poison gas experiments to conduct biological weapons research. On the cover of the three human experiment reports of Unit 731,"Anthrax Experiment Report," "Rhinoderma Experiment Report," and "Plague Bacteria Experiment Report," the words "Research and Development Department of the Chemical Corps of the Biological Warfare Laboratory at Fort Detrick Base, Maryland, this letter is returned to the Archives Department of the Post-War Headquarters, and is stamped with a black ink print of the "Technical Library of the D'Dalway Experimental Base.".

◆ The Truman administration in the United States supported South Africa's apartheid policy in order to avoid other countries condemning its racial policy.

After 1948, the Truman administration adopted the so-called "middle way" policy against the apartheid system in South Africa out of the Cold War, the protection of U.S. interests in South Africa, and the weak anti-apartheid forces in the United States, that is, while verbally opposing the apartheid system in South Africa, it also resisted the international community's interference in South Africa's racial issues. On 21 March 1960, thousands of South Africans protested their apartheid policies at a police station in Sharpeville, where they were shot and shot by white South African authorities, killing 69 people, including eight women and 10 children. The incident caused widespread condemnation in international public opinion, and the United Nations also criticized it through resolutions. At a time when the African-American civil rights movement was on the rise and the U.S. government was so desperate to favor South Africa, the Mississippi State Legislature even passed a bill supporting the South African government's "determination to defend apartheid and to remain unmoved in the face of opponents."

William Edmondson, former U.S. ambassador to South Africa, pointed out that because the United States itself is in a dilemma on the issue of civil rights, the US government is very sensitive to the racial issues in South Africa diplomatically, lest the international community turn its attention to the civil rights issues in the United States. The U.S. Committee on South African Policy Research reported that the United States was afraid that other countries might condemn its racial policies, so it supported South Africa and obstructed United Nations interference in South Africa's apartheid system on the grounds that racial policies were a domestic problem in South Africa.

◆ The United States has violated the relevant resolutions and international consensus of the United Nations Security Council on issues such as Palestine and Syria, and has long favored Israel.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East War and built Jewish settlements in both places. The settlement has been considered illegal by the United Nations and the international community. The International Court of Justice noted that the establishment of the wall was contrary to international law. For decades, the United States has supported Israel politically, economically, and militarily, and Israel has gradually expanded its settlement program in the occupied Palestinian territories. After Trump took office, he replaced the "two-state solution" with the so-called "new plan for peace in the Middle East". In December 2017, Trump announced his recognition of Jerusalem as israel's capital. In May 2018, the U.S. Embassy moved to Jerusalem. In November 2019, then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that the United States no longer believed that Israel's settlements in the West Bank violated international law. In October 2017, in response to UNESCO's so-called "anti-Semitic" activities and denial of the legitimate protests of the Palestinian people, the United States and Israel joined forces to withdraw from the organization, which officially entered into force at the end of 2018.

On March 25, 2019, then-US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed a U.S. proclamation recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The U.S. move sparked criticism around the world, including in Syria, Russia and the United Nations. Uncommittee Resolution 497, adopted in 1981, made it clear that Israel's decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administrative institutions on the Golan Heights was "null and void in its entirety and without international legal force." On 5 November 2020, the United Nations General Assembly confirmed Syria's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since the June 1967 war. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has made it clear that the status of the Golan Heights has not changed as a result. In addition, the Syrian Foreign Ministry issued a statement pointing out that the US decision was a "shameless attack on Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity." Russia warned that the US move would be a "serious violation of international law", would also hinder the settlement of the Syrian conflict, and comprehensively intensify the regional situation.

◆ The United States and its allies turn a blind eye to the serious social problems of each other's countries.

After the "Floyd Incident" in the United States in 2020, the Canadian government expressed its ambiguity, and Prime Minister Trudeau tweeted that although the United States is pursuing responsibility for the murder of Floyd, it is necessary to know that systemic racism and anti-black racism still exist, and they also exist in Canada. The statement did not condemn the incident, indicating that the Canadian government does not dare to publicly criticize the cowardly mentality of the US government and its appeasement of the United States.

At the same time, the United States has turned a blind eye to The Racial Issue in Canada. On June 3, 2019, the National Commission of Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada released a report in which Trudeau acknowledged at the opening ceremony of the International Conference on Women that the tragic violence suffered by Indigenous women was equivalent to "genocide", but the US political circles were silent about it, and US public opinion not only did not give condemnation and criticism, but claimed that the Canadian government had made "great efforts" to solve related problems.

◆ U.S. allies give the United States a "green light" in the application of international rules.

Australia claims to defend the so-called "rules-based international order", and the 2017 Australian Foreign Policy White Paper states that "the rules based on the global order should be consensus rather than dominated by powerful countries". However, in line with the US Middle East strategy, Australia refused to recognize the International Criminal Court's (ICC) decision to accept Palestine as an observer state, preventing the ICC from investigating Israel's alleged war crimes in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. After the United States announced the relocation of its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, Australia broke with the decades-long policy of previous administrations and followed Trump's statement that it would also consider relocating.

In order to safeguard the us military interests in Diego Garcia and the british colonial interests, Australia opposes the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the decolonization of the Chagos Archipelago and the relevant resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly.

The Seventh Deadly Sin: Infighting

The United States sometimes shields and sometimes beats up its allies, and plays the "art of taming the inferior", intending to force allies to follow the United States in a carrot-and-stick manner.

◆ The United States suppressed Japan through trade means and forced Japan to sign the Plaza Accord.

In the 1980s, the U.S. economy stagnated, Japan's economy developed rapidly, and the trade surplus with the United States continued to expand. The U.S. government frequently used section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to conduct 20 "301 surveys" of Japanese products between 1976 and 1989, most of which ended in Voluntary Export Restrictions with Concessions from Japan. In September 1985, the United States, Britain, France, the Federal Republic of Germany and Japan signed an agreement at the Plaza Hotel in New York, which mainly included curbing inflation, expanding domestic demand, opening up trade, and capital liberalization. After the signing of the Plaza Accord, the yen appreciated sharply, daily exports were hit, and there was a lot of overcapacity. In 1986 and 1991, the United States and Japan signed two "Semiconductor Agreements", and after the end of the five-year agreement period, the us semiconductor market in the world and Japan expanded to about 30%. In addition, the United States has launched seven trade and financial wars against Japan, including textile warfare, steel warfare, color TV warfare, automobile warfare, exchange rate warfare, semiconductor warfare, and systematic reform of the United States and Japan. In order to reduce the damage to economic competitiveness caused by the excessive appreciation of the yen, the Japanese government maintained the momentum of economic expansion by relaxing credit, and the stock market and property bubbles were getting bigger and bigger; later, in order to prevent the economy from overheating, the Japanese government took radical steps to quickly raise the central bank's benchmark interest rate, resulting in the bursting of the Japanese economic bubble. The agreement is considered a turning point in Japan's "lost twenty years".

◆ The United States has used the trade deficit as an excuse to force its allies to revise bilateral free trade agreements.

In 2012, the United States and South Korea signed the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement, after which then-U.S. President Trump believed that the agreement caused a trade deficit between the United States and South Korea. In September 2018, South Korean President Moon Jae-in had to sign an amended agreement with Trump. In August 1992, the United States, Canada and Mexico signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, establishing the North American Free Trade Area, which became the world's largest regional economic integration organization at that time. After Trump took office in January 2017, he demanded renegotiation after arguing that the deal had increased the U.S. trade deficit and shifted tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs to Mexico, where wages were lower. After more than a year of negotiations, the three parties signed a new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), and Canada opened a $16 billion agricultural market to the United States.

◆ Under the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the United States and its allies have accused each other of stumbling, and the United States has even intercepted allies' epidemic prevention materials and hoarded vaccines and other urgent anti-epidemic materials.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the epidemic prevention materials ordered by Germany, France, Canada and other hardcore US allies have been snapped up or intercepted by the United States at high prices. In April 2020, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency suddenly ordered 3M to stop exporting 3M masks to the Canadian and Latin American markets, and the existing order was temporarily cancelled. The United States bought out the short-term production capacity of remdesivir, a drug that may be used to treat the new crown, and banned the export of masks and other U.S. medical supplies to other countries, including U.S. allies.

India had aided drugs to the United States in the early stage of the epidemic, and after the outbreak of the epidemic in India, Indian Foreign Minister JaySan sujald and many others called on the United States to lift the ban on the export of vaccine raw materials to increase the production of Indian vaccines, but the United States said that it would focus on controlling the domestic epidemic and give priority to vaccinating the domestic people. The move sparked anti-American sentiment in India and was criticized by U.S. allies and the international community. According to India's ZEE News Network, Biden immediately after taking office, quoted the "National Defense Production Law" to prohibit the United States from exporting key raw materials used in the production of vaccines to ensure that vaccine manufacturers such as Pfizer can get sufficient raw materials to achieve all-weather production. The Times of India reported that the US government's hoarding of covid-19 vaccines and turning a blind eye to the serious epidemic in India has caused anti-American sentiment among Indian netizens to erupt.

On May 5, 2021, U.S. Trade Representative Dai Qi said that the United States supports the WTO's proposal to exempt intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, and the Biden administration will actively participate in the WTO's negotiations on exemption agreements and encourage other countries to participate. Germany and France objected. For the US government's "generous" move, the German government spokesman bluntly said that the US proposal to exempt the protection of intellectual property rights of the new crown vaccine has brought "serious trouble" to global vaccine production. French President Emmanuel Macron said at the EU Leaders' Summit that COVID-19 vaccine patents are not a key issue at the moment, and accused the United Kingdom and the United States of blocking the export of vaccines and raw materials. European Commission President von der Leyen said the EU was open to discussions on patents, but sharing technology was not a quick response to the outbreak.

◆ In order to maintain regional control and dominance, the United States is not soft on allies or abandons or sanctions or suppresses.

In July 2016, an attempted military coup broke out in Turkey, killing more than 240 Turkish citizens and injuring more than 2,000. The Turkish authorities accused Gulen in the United States of participating in the coup, listed the "Gulen Movement" as a terrorist organization, and asked 83 countries including the United States to extradite 425 members of the organization, but the US government has always refused.

In order to combat the extremist organization "Islamic State", the United States has long supported the Syrian Kurdish armed group and regarded it as an important ally. Later, in order to reduce the burden of garrison troops and ease relations with Turkey, the United States suddenly abandoned this ally. In the second half of 2019, before the Turkish government carried out cross-border military strikes against Kurdish armed groups, the United States suddenly withdrew its troops from relevant areas and said that it "does not support and participate."

The United States has been taking long-term precautions against Turkey, doing its best to interfere with Turkey's approach to Russia, imposing sanctions on Turkey's purchase of Russian weapons, and applying the provisions of the "Countering US Enemies with Sanctions" to NATO allies for the first time. The Biden administration publicly declared its recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a "genocide" and pushed for the introduction of relevant sanctions legislation, forcing Turkey to bow to the United States. In 2018, Turkey unsuccessfully sought to purchase the US-made "Patriot-3" missile, and instead signed an S-400 air defense system contract with Russia. The United States also exerted pressure on Turkey, announced sanctions, and banned the Export-Import Bank of the United States from providing credit to Turkey, kicking Turkey out of the F-35 fighter program, and not returning the research and development funds and fighter deposits invested by Turkey.

◆ U.S. economic bullying treats allies "equally."

The United States not only practices protectionism, but also increases its control over its allies through trade agreements. In the negotiations on the US-Mexico-Canada agreement, the United States forced Canada to give up its sovereign right to independently sign trade agreements with other countries, accepted unreasonable demands from the United States, and included a "poison pill clause" in the agreement, stipulating that any member of the agreement must obtain the consent of other member countries to negotiate a free trade agreement with non-market economies, which is obviously deliberately aimed at China and other specific countries, seriously interfering with and undermining the global free trade order.

A month after the signing of the US-Mexico-Canada agreement, then-US President Trump raised the stick of sanctions against Canada, announcing that in August 2020, he would resume imposing additional 10% tariffs on some aluminum products imported from Canada. The Canadian government announced tariffs on a series of Products Containing Alcoa worth $3.6 billion. After months of consultations, Trump formally canceled the decision in October of that year, but at the same time threatened to resume tariffs if Canada's exports to Alcoa surged. After Biden took office, he signed an executive order to cancel the project license of Canada's "cornerstone" oil pipeline, which had a great negative impact on the economy of Alberta, canada's major energy province, and made the Canadian economy worse during the epidemic.

In 1996, the European Union enacted the EU Blocking Act, which binds member states to obey US laws and regulations, imposes sanctions on subjects that comply with US law but do not comply with EU law, and allows the European Court of Justice to sue the beneficiary or winning party in US-related cases.

In recent years, the United States has insisted that the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project threatens European energy security, opposing this and imposing sanctions. In January 2021, the United States announced sanctions against the Russian-flagged "Fortuna" boat. On March 25, U.S. Secretary of State John Blinken said that the Nord Stream-2 project runs counter to the ENERGY security goals set by the European Union itself and has the potential to hurt the interests of Ukraine, Poland and other countries, and reiterated the U.S. position and attitude on the project, including sanctions against companies working to complete the construction of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline.

◆ The United States used the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to forcibly suppress allied companies.

The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prohibits U.S. individuals and entities from giving or providing anything of value to foreign state officials in order to win business. In 2020, U.S. prosecutors disclosed a criminal indictment in which two former executives of the French transport company Alstom and a former executive of the Japanese trading company Marubeni Co., Ltd. were accused of conspiring to violate the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and conspiring to launder money for paying bribes to Indonesian officials. The Wall Street Journal reported in January 2021 that the FBI has played a greater role in overseas investigations linked to the United States, expanding its international anti-corruption division in recent years to track down individuals and organizations involved in crimes such as bribery, burglary rule, and antitrust. In a 2014 case against Alstom, Alstom and Marubeni each settled with the U.S. Department of Justice, paying $772 million and $88 million to settle the allegations against the Indonesian project and other national projects.

◆ The Group of Seven is constantly divided within itself, and it seems to be at odds with each other in dealing with internal and external issues.

In June 2018, the Group of Seven (G7) Summit was held in Canada, and the summit communiqué pledged to work towards reducing tariff barriers, non-tariff barriers and subsidies. Then-US President Donald Trump announced that he would not sign the summit communiqué. The United States also announced that from June 1, the tariff exemption treatment of steel and aluminum products of the European Union, Canada and Mexico will be lifted, and punitive tariffs of 25% and 10% will be imposed respectively. The European Union and Canada then said they would take reciprocal measures to enforce their rights, imposing roughly the same tariffs on sensitive U.S. products. In addition to trade issues, the G7 proposes solutions such as reducing the use of single-use plastics. However, the two member states, the United States and Japan, have not signed the Charter on Marine Plastics.

In August 2019, the G7 Summit was held in France. Trump said before the meeting that if France imposes a digital tax on U.S. internet technology companies such as Google, Facebook and Apple, the United States will tax French wine. The European Council president at the time, Tusk, said that if the United States taxed, the European Union would respond with similar measures. Reuters cited a string of controversial issues ahead of the summit: Trump's dissatisfaction with France's july pass of a bill imposing a digital services tax; the U.S. ignoring efforts to tackle climate change; differences between the U.S. and Europe over whether to readmit Russia back to the G7; and European powers trying to ease relations between the U.S. and Iran.

In May 2021, the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting was held in the UK. The US State Department statement said that when US Secretary of State Blinken met with German Foreign Minister Maas during this meeting, he once again expressed strong opposition from the United States to the Russian-German "Nord Stream-2" natural gas pipeline project. Some experts pointed out that in view of the dependence of the European continent on Russia's energy supply, major European countries such as Germany and France will not closely follow the United States in their policies towards Russia. American economics professor Hayry Turck believes that the economic foundation determines that the purpose of the United States and Britain in trying to expand the anti-China camp through the G7 is difficult to achieve, because Germany, Japan, and South Korea all have direct and large economic and trade exchanges with China, and India, as one of the main beneficiaries of the AIIB initiated by China, will not easily stand on the side of the United States.

◆ The United States does not pay lip service to its allies.

Recently, the Australian Government has been pleased with the United States' public declaration of support for Australia in confronting China's "economic coercion," but other countries of the "Five Eyes Alliance," including the United States, have not only paid lip service to Australia, but have also taken advantage of the fire and robbery to expand exports to China and quickly squeeze out Australia's market share in China. According to Australian media disclosures, from October 2020 to February 2021, Australian wine exports to China fell by 98%, and politicians from other countries of the "Five Eyes Alliance" expressed high-profile solidarity with Australian wine, but Australia's exports to other countries in the "Five Eyes Alliance" did not increase but fell by 25%. From December 2020 to February 2021, Australian coal exports to China fell to zero, while the share of coal in China of other countries of the "Five Eyes Alliance" rose from 2.7% to 6.1%; the market share of Australian imports of food and beverages in China fell from 6.3% in April 2020 to 3.6% in February 2021, while the market share of other countries of the "Five Eyes Alliance" rose from 25.5% to 39.5%.

(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, August 3)

People's Daily ( 2021-08-05 18th edition)