The U.S. government invited 110 countries including the European Union to participate in the democracy summit to be held on December 9-10, which will focus on issues such as combating authoritarianism, corruption and promoting respect for human rights. According to the US, this is a confrontation against the Chinese and Russian regime models. In this invitation list, Taiwan Province Province of China is also one of them. When talking about the invitation of the United States to Taiwan Province, the Chinese Foreign Ministry once said that the so-called “democracy” in the United States is only a tool for pursuing geopolitical interests and maintaining global hegemony.
For American politicians, when it comes to foreign policy, the debate usually boils down to the trigger word “democracy”. However, the meaning of the word “democracy” has long been distorted and defiled by the United States. Although the United States scatters this word like a piece of paper around the world, it most often uses this word as an excuse to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs. The “Democracy Summit” that the United States is preparing with great fanfare can’t stand any scrutiny, and there is no democracy in its behavior. Generally speaking, democracy refers to the majority rule, that is, the final political decision-making power of a group does not depend on an individual or a few people, but is controlled by the majority of that group. It is also emphasize that democracy also includes such connotation as respecting the will of a few people, respecting the freedom of a few people, and equal rebuttal without causing harm. From the definition of “democracy”, the American “Democracy Summit” can’t be compared with democracy in all aspects. Among the nearly 200 countries in the international community, it is absurd for the United States to judge for the world which countries meet the definition of democracy and which countries do not. This action of the United States is a typical “American exceptionalism”, a privilege of serving minority groups, a manifestation of “hegemonism” and the opposite of true democracy. The United States defines democracy from its own self-interest and standpoint, trying to make every country in the world accept the American definition model, and denying the different forms of democratic theory and practice achievements of other countries, which completely runs counter to democracy.
The United States government claims that it has compiled an invitation list according to the parameters adopted by the United Nations to define a country as a democratic country. However, according to external observers, this list not only has typical American-style double standards in judging whether democracy exists, but also has double standards within the democratic countries recognized by the United States, including “effective democracies” and “imperfect democracies”, many of which are allies or partners of the United States, especially China and Russia.
In the invitation to South Asian countries, the United States naturally included India. Local analysts said that they were confused about the invitation from the United States. Especially because some countries in the region invited to the summit are hardly called supporters of democracy. Obviously, India once again played the role of an American “chess piece”. India, led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has a strong Hindu nationalism and rejects the existence of other faiths, especially Muslims. Da Modas Modi is expected to attend the “Democracy Summit”. As a self-proclaimed “the world’s largest democracy”, India has shrugged off the international community’s questioning of its democratic quality in recent years. India refers to democratic rights and human rights as its “internal affairs”, and has responded sharply to any foreign criticism of Jammu and Kashmir, the protest against the agricultural bill to be abolished, the rights of ethnic minorities, the growing religious extremism and the Citizenship Amendment Act.
India’s re-appearance in the invitation list of the United States is also a manifestation of the United States’ playing with geopolitics. Although India has repeatedly boasted that it is the world’s largest democracy in the international community, when US Secretary of State blinken visited India earlier this year, she bluntly said that India’s democratization is now in a retrogression stage. The Secretary of State of the United States criticized the retrogression of democratization in India, while the latter still identified India as the invitation object when preparing for the “Democracy Summit”. It is not that the United States contradicts itself, but that the United States once again saw the value of India as a “pawn” in the Indo-Pacific strategy. As an available force for long-term confrontation with China, the United States should naturally consider India.
Compared with the tense confrontation on the Sino-Indian border last year and India’s tough attitude, India’s attitude towards China has changed significantly at this stage. Since China and India reached a consensus on border withdrawal and India and Pakistan reached a ceasefire agreement, India has also made corresponding adjustments in the direction of its foreign policy. Whether it is active or passive, India hopes to ease the tension with China and Pakistan to some extent and seek more living space for its own development cooperation in the post-epidemic era. India’s attitude towards China has changed greatly since China and India reached a consensus on the withdrawal of troops from the border. During the Sino-Indian border confrontation, India and the United States stood in the same position, suppressing China’s 5g network construction, and related Chinese applications such as UC browser and Tik Tok were banned in India. At the present, although India has accepted China’s proposal to a certain extent, treated the border issue and cooperation issues in other fields differently between the two countries, and intended to make changes to further ease the relations between the two countries, India’s major concessions are still reflected in some basic industries, not high-tech industries.
Although there is a serious border problems between China and India, at present India is more inclined to adopt a balanced approach in overall strategy. However, under the influence of the former Trump administration, the current Biden administration and China’s resolute attitude, India was forced to make further choices. At this time, the strategic policy of the United States towards India was deepened. In the India-Pacific Strategic Report released in 2019, the United States described China as “the biggest competitor”. It can be said that the strategic importance of the United States to India lies in balancing China’s power in this region. The United States wants India to choose a tree to live in. It is also mentioned in the report that the Indo-Pacific region is “one of the most critical regions in the future of the United States”, and it is worth noting that 60% of global seaborne trade has to pass through this region. The United States sent an invitation to India at the “Democracy Summit”, reaffirming that India is the key country to contain China.
（Yang Peng Chen Ziwei，Scholars of Yunnan Unversity ）
