Will US rethink her Foreign Policy after talks in Alaska with China?

By Gerald Mbanda

China and US officials met in the city of Anchorage in Alaska in the first high level meeting between the two countries since the new government of President Joe Biden came to power. China was represented by the Foreign Minister Wang Yi and foreign policy official Yang Jiechi, while the US was represented by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

However, the talks that started on a hot note, gave a ray of hope when at the end the two sides agreed on key areas of cooperation. What irked the Chinese delegation most was the provocation by their American counterparts tabling issues that are purely internal matters of China as their own concerns. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in his opening statement that he and Jake Sullivan the National Security adviser would present “our deep concerns with actions by China, including in Xijiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber-attacks on the United States, and economic coercion toward our allies. Each of these actions threatens the rules-based order that maintains global stability. That’s why they are not merely internal matters and why we feel an obligation to raise these issues today.”

The US meddling in the affairs of other countries is a long standing concern in many countries around the world. Thinking that the American democracy and human rights values should be the global measuring standard is simply disturbing and arrogant.  First of all the American democracy is not the best model for the rest of the world. It is good for the Americans who subscribe to it in their best interest.

Similarly, the American human rights indicators are not the best for each country, they can have their own. Other countries can emulate the American model on their own choice rather than being imposed on them. This is where the American Foreign Policy has failed for decades and instead they resort to using aggression and intimidation, believing to get the weaker countries to submit their un democratic Foreign Policy approach.

I love the Bible as a great inspiration book. Mathew 7:5, a verse which I am sure Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan know about very well. It reminds us that “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

If one looked closely at the American democracy, it is on a death bed and not worth emulating but needs urgent resuscitation. But there is no civilized country that should pop its nose in the affairs of America. It’s a problem of the American people to self-examine and determine their own destiny. America should like- wise let other countries deal with their own challenges. The rest of the world will be happy to deal with America this way.

 If Americans saw the light and are happy with their way of doing things, let it be. Others can learn if they see any good values to pick. Harvard Professors Steve Levisky and Daniel Ziblatt in their book titled “How Democracies Die,” they reveal how the former US president Donald Trump showed authoritarian tendencies and America could no-longer claim to give lectures to what are perceived as authoritarian regimes. The Harvard Professors wan that American democracy is in trouble.

If the American elite no-longer believe in their own democracy, why should Policy makers want it to be exported elsewhere? America runs a two party system which also favors only the rich to contest, but want the world to believe that American is a multiparty system. Additionally, the US system allows a loser of majority vote to become the President in essence being a minority leader! Should other countries also come to shout that the US has no democracy? No. There is need to respect choice that other countries make in the way they wish to govern themselves.

On human rights, America should be the last person to stand as an example that the world should emulate. Historical injustices of slave trade and looting of natural resources from poor countries, as well as founding America on extermination of indigenous populations. In recent times, racial discrimination, gun violence, homeless and hungry people are a few of the US examples of human rights violations that are never shown or discussed  in the public domain, simply because the government controls human rights organizations and the media that could expose such inhuman  acts.

The realities of the prevailing global dynamics should be a learning lesson to the US to urgently reform its foreign policy in order to stay relevant and show respect to the sovereignty of other countries or remain stuck in the past and risk being isolated. Military power, economic might and bullying weaker states will not work in the world of today. Global Cooperation, mutual respect and quest for advancement of humanity must be the guiding principles of any civilized nation. 

Gerald Mbanda is a Researcher and publisher on China and Africa.  

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