An American analyst accuses the Biden administration of appeasing "tyranny"
Mark Episkopos: “Summit for Democracy” represented a betrayal of American national interests
Biden saw the summit as a global rallying point for united democracies around shared values and a shared vision for the future.
EPA
Demonstration outside the White House to demand more democracy.
AFP
picture
Amid severe criticism, the virtual "Summit for Democracy", called by US President Joe Biden, and attended by more than 100 countries, and which focused on three main themes: defending against authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and promoting respect for human rights, was finally concluded.
In a joint editorial published by the American National Interest magazine, the Russian and Chinese ambassadors to the United States, Anatoly Antonov and Chen Zhang, criticized the summit as a manifestation of a "cold war mentality", and demanded that the United States stop using "value-centered diplomacy" as a tool of division and confrontation. They said that Russia and China are implementing democracy on their own, that there is no need to worry about democracy in the two countries, and that it is better for certain foreign countries to think about themselves and what is happening in them.
turn
US analyst Mark Episkobos said in a report published by "The National Interest" that President Biden warned in his opening speech at the summit of the decline of democracy, amid the growing threat from the authoritarian trend, and said: "We are standing at a turning point in our history .. Will we allow Constantly declining democratic rights without stopping it?” He added that “democracy is not achieved by chance, and we have to renew it with each generation.”
Without explicitly stating Washington's policy of values-based confrontation with China and Russia, Biden denounced "external pressure from authoritarians who seek to consolidate their power, export and extend their influence around the world, and justify their repressive policies and practices as a more efficient way to confront current challenges." .
Beijing's anger
Episkopos said that the Biden administration's decision to invite Taiwan to participate in the summit angered Beijing, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman accusing Washington of using democracy "as a cover and a tool to advance its geopolitical goals, oppress other countries, divide the world, and serve its interests."
Episkopos noted that the summit was held in the context of the US-led campaign to call for a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Games in Beijing, based on "the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights violations", and so far the boycott has been joined by Canada and Australia. , and Britain.
Beyond the expected resistance from Washington's main geopolitical rivals, the summit sparked controversy among America's allies.
Hungary, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union, did not receive an invitation to participate in the conference.
This has been negatively met by some Hungarian critics of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who say it would further alienate Hungary from the West, and exacerbate the same domestic authoritarian tendencies that Hungary's exclusion was intended to end.
Episkopos points out that while Orban's authoritarian behavior was cited as a reason not to invite Hungary to the summit, Kiev was invited to participate despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's continued censorship of opposition media, his persecution of opposition politicians, and restrictions on foreign journalists.
feeling anxious
Experts worry that rating countries on the basis of values could lead to geopolitical tensions and expose invited countries from the Asia-Pacific region, such as Indonesia and South Korea, to economic or political retaliation from China.
On the other hand, lobbyists, commentators, and think tanks that concur with the concept of an event to empower the global cause of democracy have been very critical of the implementation of the Summit.
Laura Thornton, director of the Alliance for Democracy Insurance at the German Marshall Fund, pointed out that the process for selecting participants for the summit was ridiculously undemocratic, without a clear title, or any other kind of procedural transparency.
Critics sympathetic to the summit's main mission argue that its rationale would have been better served with a less state-focused stance, instead focusing the efficacy on civil society leaders and activists from both democratic and non-democratic countries.
Concluding his report, Episkopos said the Biden administration described the summit as a global rallying point for united democracies around shared values and a shared vision for the future.
But what has emerged is a mixed relationship, which involves a strategic error, and is morally dubious.
Supporters and participants of the summit assert that "values are interests."
But the summit did something very bad. It disturbed American values through its gross contradictions, while betraying core national interests through its many unjustified provocations.
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