Washington's smear campaign against China fools no clear mind

The publication of Washington's new report against China, replete with lies and defamations, has again laid bare some US politicians' entrenched yet obsolete Cold War mindset and ideological bigotry.

In the report by the US State Department, groundless accusations against China are made while the authors lay out "ten tasks" to handle the so-called "China challenge."

However, like other tricks played by US China hawks to discredit China, the latest political maneuvering is doomed to fail.

The report attacks China's socialist development path, making an unwarranted accusation that Beijing is seeking to place "a socialist stamp on world order," which could not be further from the truth.

China has always maintained that all countries should pursue a development path that suits their national conditions. Unlike the United States, infamously known for fanning the flames of trouble across the globe for its own gains, China is not interested in exporting ideology. Neither does it interfere in other countries' internal affairs.

The report also claims that China seeks to "fundamentally revise world order," another blatant lie.

Besides contributing profoundly to the world economy with its economic growth, China has proposed to build a community with a shared future for mankind while championing international cooperation in tackling a wide array of global challenges, including climate change, the prevention and control of epidemic diseases, and uneven regional development.

By contrast, Washington has undermined multilateralism in recent years by withdrawing from major international agreements and institutions, and handled international relations in ways that only serve its own interests, thereby posing a significant hurdle to solving global problems.

The authors also propose to make "constraining and deterring" China part of US foreign policy. Those words, while inciting antagonism and confrontation, have exposed the mounting anxiety that some American politicians harbor over China's peaceful rise, as well as their intention of impeding China's development by all means.

Yet, their scheme fools no clear mind, as evidenced by the extensive criticism immediately following the release of the report. "It is a propaganda piece that reflects the naive views of the outgoing secretary of state," said a review posted online.

It is high time that US politicians understood that there is no place for the Cold War mentality in today's world. Cooperation, rather than confrontation, is the only correct way forward for China-US relations.