Following the US-organized Summit for Democracy, which attempted to bolster like-minded friends in the face of authoritarian regimes, China dubbed US democracy a “weapon of mass devastation.”
China, along with Russia and Hungary, was left out of the two-day virtual summit and responded strongly by accusing US Vice President Joe Biden of fostering Cold War-era ideological differences.
The US conference, according to the ministry, was held to “draw ideological lines, instrumentalize and weaponize democracy… (and) incite division and hostility.”
Instead, Beijing has pledged to “resolutely resist and oppose all forms of pseudo-democracy.”
China stepped up its propaganda campaign criticising US democracy as corrupt and a failure in the run-up to the summit.
Instead, in a white paper released last week to shore up legitimacy for the ruling Communist Party, which has become increasingly authoritarian under President Xi Jinping, it promoted its own form of “whole-process people’s democracy.”
Despite the United States’ repeated denials that a new Cold War with China is imminent, tensions between the world’s two largest economies have risen in recent years over topics such as trade and technical competition, human rights, Xinjiang, and Taiwan.
Two high-ranking Chinese officials were sanctioned by the US Treasury on Friday for human rights violations in the Xinjiang region, while Chinese AI surveillance firm SenseTime was placed on a blacklist for using facial recognition technology to target the Uyghur minority.
In an apparent blow to its larger neighbour, Taiwan, a democratic self-governing island claimed by China, was invited to the US summit.
“‘Democracy’ has long been a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ employed by the United States to intervene in other nations,” a foreign ministry official said in an online statement, accusing the US of “instigating ‘colour revolutions'” around the world.
In the middle of Biden’s summit, however, Beijing received a boost when Nicaragua severed its previous diplomatic affiliation with Taiwan, declaring that it only recognised China.
Taiwan now has only 14 diplomatic friends as a result of the statement. The US State Department responded by urging “any countries that appreciate democratic institutions” to “enhance engagement” with the island.
