Cooperation needs sincerity and reliability

Diplomacy, ever since its first appearance in ancient times, has served the goals of a country’s long-term strategy and short-term tactics. Unlike war, diplomacy expresses policy by means including common protocol, mutual respect, understanding, and exchanging opinions. Diplomacy’s key role is to seek peaceful resolutions to common affairs, ideally fostering equality and independence among countries.

Nonetheless, there are still a few nations such as the US which deliberately confuse diplomacy with war. The US views diplomacy as a weapon in its arsenal rather than as an olive branch for peace. It often misleads its people by talking about diplomacy to avoid criticism. The recent series of diplomatic maneuvers of the US show that it has not realized the importance of its people’s lives and well-being.

When the Delta variant flared up in the US, the rift between pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine, pro-mask and anti-mask politicians became louder and louder. By politicizing the origin tracing of the COVID, the US is attempting to scapegoat China for its own failure in combating the virus.

When the military withdrawal from Afghan got derailed, Kamala Harris and Lloyd Austin were busy pushing the so-called Indo-Pacific strategy to falsely claim military threats to Southeastern Asian countries. The US also provided some vaccine doses to some countries with string attached to keep them in line.

Facing public criticism for mishandling extreme weather such as wildfire and rainstorm, the US suddenly recalled the importance of climate change. Its special envoy Kerry was sent urgently to discuss carbon problem with China, as if the current situation of the US was caused by nobody but China. According to data from the World Bank, the carbon emission per capita in 2018 shows that the emission of China is 7.4 tons per capita while the US is 15.2 tons per capita. Facts don’t lie. Who should be blamed for the climate change? Who rejected Kyoto Protocol? And who withdrew and rejoined the Paris Accord repeatedly? When Kerry signed the Paris Accord holding his granddaughter, nobody doubted his blessings for the offspring. But this time, when he said climate discussion should be decoupled from other political issues, he should have remembered it is the US that slandered China on such groundless issues. How can someone accept cooperation without sincerity and groundless accusation and sanctions?

Finger pointing at others cannot solve problems. Such diplomatic tricks show the immaturity of the administration and irresponsibility of the politicians, also incompetency of the political system of the US.

It is a country full of laws but not one rule of law. Ever since COVID-19 began, the country has not enforced any law about communicable diseases. Even the recent issued mask mandate is still being quarreled again and again. As schools open, new infections are emerging because of the groundless quarrels to get vaccinated or not, wear mask or not. As far as international law is concerned, it has retreated or never rectified some important accords and agreements. Besides the Paris Accord, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has not been rectified by the US yet. While the US preaches the slogan of free navigation, it should remember that UNCLOS should be the rule of law to obey. When it allied with some countries to allege that they should press China to abide by the rule of law, they should think carefully whether the US is eligible or not.

When the US invaded Afghan 20 years ago, it told its people to eliminate the terrorists. When the US got attacked by the terrorists during the withdrawal in Kabul airport, it told its people the 20-year-long mission had been accomplished, whether the terrorists were wiped out or not. There is no rule of law to distinguish its policy correct or not.

It is a country full of mystery and lack of transparency. The coronavirus has been researched in military labs for more than 10 years. When the pandemic occurred, why did its administration not show the scientific facts about the virus immediately to public? There are hundreds of military biolabs around the globe, what’s the purpose in maintaining them and spending huge amount of financial money?

In order to please the voters, politicians often exaggerate their goals and achieve little. In order to calm down the disapproval of voters, most politicians attempt to avert public opinion toward foreign policies, even wage war against other countries by fabricating groundless pretexts. From Russia to China, from Korea to Iran, from Iraq to Syria, from Cuba to Venezuela, the imaginary adversary list grows longer and longer. The diplomacy ranges from common meaning of foreign affairs to espionage, coup, color revolution, coercion, aid with string attachment, military intervention, etc. The goal and means of diplomacy of the US is not pure any more. The essence and concept of diplomacy evolves into a card game or a chess board for politicians. The flags are human rights, freedom, democracy, rule of law, transparency. The cards or pawns are countries as role of wedge, buffer, provoker, backup, allies. The means include cheating, scandal, intimidation, coup, overthrow, invasion. The main goal is to safeguard the vested interest of the politicians. As to the fate of the pawns, they are not even considered.

The reality is that the world is not a playground of small groups. According to the Game Theory, one can cheat his counterpart once, but by tit-for-tat strategy, only cooperation can make coexistence for long. The communication between countries, especial between strong ones, should be based on more and more cooperation and less and less confrontation. Politics between strong countries shouldn’t be of myopia. Only reliable and farsighted administrations deserve serious respect.

The main powers of the world have the responsibility to safeguard the peaceful development of the whole world, to solve the common problem such as pandemic, climate change and poverty. If the US wants to discuss cooperation, it should abandon its diplomatic tricks and show its sincerity, abandon the coercion and adopt equality attitude, renounce the Cold War and zero-game mentality and not provoke fires here and there, not bully other countries whether strong or weak, big or small, developed or developing.

The author is a reader of China Daily.

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