Washington Violates 'Universal' Western Values

America's religious adherence to Western values blind it to the contradictions of its own behavior. According to this op-ed article from China's State-run People's Daily, 'The startling contrast between these much-trumpeted "values" and actual behavior is food for thought.'

By Huang Qing, Senior Editor, People's Daily

December 22, 2005

Original Article (English)

For the West, democracy and freedom are "universal" values. This so-called "universality" refers to standards, or rules of the game, that apply to all circumstances and all scenarios. Elections, for example, are an important part of democracy, the results of which must be respected by both participants and outsiders.

Participants are to resign themselves to the result, even if they don't like it, and outsiders should hold their criticism; otherwise the game simply cannot go on.

A number of recent events, however, leave many people doubtful of the universality of these values. People have begun to realize the political, ideological and materialistic nature of these values.

On December 15, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) put in a strong showing during local Palestinian elections. On the next day, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution saying that Hamas should not be permitted to participate in Palestinian elections until it renounces violence. If the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) allows an armed group to participate in the political process, Washington will freeze or slash its financial support to Palestine. On Dec. 19, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana made it clear that if the Hamas should win future elections for the Palestinian legislative committee, the E.U. too, would consider halting financial support to the PNA.

Although the results went against the expectations of the United States, the E.U. and Israel, the election results reflect the social conditions and public will of Palestine. Up to now, no party has raised questions over the fairness of the polls. In the spirit of democracy, results of a fairly conducted election, whether one like the results or not, should be unconditionally accepted and respected. But Washington and the E.U. greatly disliked the results, hence the above-mentioned decision and comments to exert pressure.

From the perspective of universal democratic values, the behavior of the U.S. and E.U. is in no way democratic, whether their concerns are justified or not. If their threats of economic sanctions constitute an element of democracy, then vote rigging and intimidation can also be counted as democratic.  Looked at in this way, democracy as a universal value has clear and inevitable limits, clashing with many powerful interests.

in Western political culture, there are two interpretations of democracy: realistic and religious.

Winston Churchill once said: "democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." This is a realistic interpretation. A classic behavior of present-day U.S. leaders, however, is to give abstract, absolute and religious interpretations to democracy and other Western values. In real life, however, Washington more often than not resorts to acts that violate or corrode such values.

Another case is the belief in "freedom." But ever since Washington launched its hunt for terrorists, exceptions to this value have been exposed one after another: "Detainee abuse," "secret prisons," and "intelligence gathering" all run counter to such universal values as freedom and human rights and, as a result, have caused tremendous controversy, both at home and abroad.

The startling contrast between these much-trumpeted "values" and actual behavior is food for thought on today's international political stage.

This comment by People's Daily senior editor Huang Qing is carried on the third page of People's Daily, Dec. 22, and is translated by People's Daily Online.