Malicious attempts to vilify China will eventually prove futile

Recent years have seen unremitting efforts by certain political forces, with those from the US being the most prominent, to tarnish China’s image in the international community. They attack China on the country’s system, keep meddling in China’s domestic affairs and attempt to sideline China by creating and promoting the falsified narrative about “China Threat.” Those malicious, groundless attacks, though outdated and lame, can easily find echoes among America's allies and sometimes even deceive a wider, credulous audience. However, what is untrue can never be turned into truth, no matter how many times it is repeated. Exposing the hidden logic behind such lies will bring one closer to reality and help better defend international justice and order.

They start by denying the effectiveness of China’s economic system, which features market economy with Chinese characteristics, and falsely accusing China of averting or breaking commercial rules, blaming China for the large-scale unemployment in the US. However, the fact is that China has been making active efforts to honor its promises to the WTO since it joined the organization over two decades ago. Aside from the ever-lowering general tariff (from 15.3% to 7.4%), China’s increasingly open market has also provided American job-seekers with unprecedented opportunities.

The next target is China’s political system. Some Americans choose to overlook the democracy intrinsic to China’s political system and relentlessly spread rumors about forced labour and human rights violations. By branding China as a regime against democracy, America intends to burnish its own democratic profile. Lies about “detention camps” in Xinjiang serve as one of the best examples. Fabricating shocking fake news about “forced labour” and even “genocide,” the US turns a blind eye to a plenitude of important facts in Xinjiang, including its growing population, meticulous human rights guarantee, and the extended life expectancy of the local residents.

US attacks on China’s economic and political systems serve three purposes. First, vilifying China in this way helps drive China out of the international system that the US dominates. Recently, America has been running to create a “parallel system” that marginalizes China around the globe, most importantly around the Asia-Pacific region, in the hope that this may undermine China’s enormous market. Second, America intends to disrupt the investment environment in the vast Indo-Pacific region, which allows capital across the world to flow to the US. Notorious domestic partisan divides have greatly diminished the American market’s appeal to global investors, and smearing China is part of America’s effort to redirect the capital in the Asia-Pacific region to the US. Last but not least, by portraying China as a common threat, the US will be able to charge its allies more for military protection, perpetuating their dependence on America.

However, no matter how hard they try, such efforts are bound to be futile. China’s economic development, social stability and its willingness to engage in fair and mutually beneficial international cooperation will eventually win itself more and more international support. Attempts to vilify China will be an utter joke.

Contributed by Feng Weijiang, associate researcher at the centre of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in Xi's New Era Studies at Chinese Academy of Social Science

Translated by Wang Jinhong