The US Is Busy With Impeachment, How Can the World Just Look On?

On Wednesday, Dec. 18, the United States House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump. This event gave the international community outside of the U.S. two strong impressions. First, the vote in the House of Representatives lined up almost entirely according to party. Only three members of the Democratic Party voted in opposition to impeachment, and all the others voted in favor. All members of the Republican Party voted to oppose impeachment. The second impression is that there is no hope that this impeachment will result in conviction by the Senate which has a Republican majority.

Among major Western capitalist nations, the United States has become the one that most frequently uses the tool of impeachment. Because individual resentments and partisan battles are deeply involved in the process, this practice has clearly brought about negative perceptions of Western-style democracy. This perspective has severely weakened the formerly held notion by some that impeachment in the United States was a just manifestation of democracy.

Trump’s impeachment was initially an internal matter, and it would have been fine for outsiders to simply look on at the excitement. But in fact, things are not this simple.

The leading figures of both the Democratic and Republican Parties have each presented completely opposite views of impeachment, both sounding grand, righteous and full of moral imperative. But underneath this appearance of righteousness there lies a political plot full of party secrets. Political hypocrisy has already been normalized and publicly promoted in the U.S., and no politician is ashamed of passionately making false statements for the sake of his or her personal interests.

It is entirely conceivable that these same politicians who are being criticized will be very adept when they apply their skills to international affairs. Promoting justice as a disguise for seeking profit is not only something many of these politicians are good at, but has, in fact, become a norm—a rule, even.

When Congress pushed for the passage of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act and the Uighur Human Rights Policy Act, when senior U.S. officials delivered a radical extreme speech on China policy, and when they pretentiously adopted an action that goes against China’s interests, how can we expect the U.S. to truly follow international laws and norms? How can China expect any goodwill toward China-U.S. relations or the Chinese people?

The impeachment of President Trump is a reflection of the true face of American politics. The positive values of a Western-style democratic system have mostly been exposed, but the possibilities for polarization and other defects in the same system have been continuously demonstrated in recent years, and have rapidly expanded. What we see today is a U.S. that is becoming increasingly more extreme in both the domestic and international political spheres. Additionally, the politics of other major Western countries are showing varying degrees of a similar kind of “Americanization.”

The U.S. and other major Western countries have acted as the stabilizers of international order in the past, but now, constant polarization is turning these countries into new sources of unrest. American turmoil cannot be confined to its national borders; its spillover to the rest of the world is inevitable.

In this partisan battle over the impeachment of President Trump, we have clearly seen the stance of the U.S. media. The media’s views on foreign affairs also largely aligns with the performance of U.S. political parties. Everyone says the American media is very independent, but in reality, it is also politicized, and has moved farther and farther away from true neutrality and objectivity.

It is difficult to expect that such a politicized U.S. media will report about China in a rational, practical and realistic way. The idea of disregarding facts in favor of blindly supporting a political standpoint has permeated American politics with enough force to influence the American public’s attitudes toward China.

In order to deal with the U.S. despite its constant upheaval, the Chinese people must have more patience and be prepared to respond to all kinds of uncertainty. The volatility created by using international affairs to cope with domestic affairs will inevitably fall upon the United States. But the U.S. is the only global superpower. We have no choice but to respond to its challenges.