Criticism after Biden's summit: China: America's democracy is a "weapon of mass destruction"

After the Democracy Summit organized by the United States, China described American democracy as a “weapon of mass destruction”.

"'Democracy' has long since become a 'weapon of mass destruction' that the US is using to interfere in other countries," said a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Saturday. 

The United States organized the Democracy Summit to "draw lines of ideological prejudice, to instrumentalize democracy and use it as a weapon and to create division and confrontation".

Beijing will "firmly oppose any kind of pseudo-democracies," said the spokesman. 

Beijing promotes "holistic democracy of the people"

China, like Russia, had sharply criticized the summit organized by American President Joe Biden even before its opening and described American democracy as “corrupt” and “failed”.

Instead, Beijing promoted its own version of "holistic popular democracy".

The Democracy Summit was an election campaign promise made by the American President who placed the struggle between democracies and “autocratic governments” at the center of his foreign policy. China and Russia were not invited, and NATO member Turkey and EU member Hungary were not on the invitation list either. Taiwan, on the other hand, was invited to China's annoyance. The summit took place online on Thursday and Friday. In its second edition next year, it is to be held physically. 

China had accused the United States of promoting ideological rifts like in the Cold War.

Washington has repeatedly stressed that there will be no Cold War with China.

However, tensions between the two countries have increased significantly in recent years due to disagreements in the areas of trade, technological competition and human rights, among other things.