US hegemony Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

"Democracy" is nothing but a tool and disguise for the US. While Washington is about to hold a summit for democracy next week to boast about its status as a "beacon of democracy," it is being accused of interfering with other countries' democratic election process.

According to the Financial Times, Hungary's government on Thursday said it expected the US to try to interfere in elections next year in an effort to "unseat" Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that he expected Washington to deploy the Magnitsky Act, which can be used to impose sanctions on foreign nationals for "corruption or human rights abuses" before the country's general election in April 2022.

The US' interference in the Hungarian elections is largely due to its belief that Orban is "pro-China." Washington has clearly defined China as a strategic competitor, and thus any country that has close ties with China is regarded as a thorn in the eye of the US. The US especially cannot tolerate Hungary's friendly relations with China, since it is a NATO member.

The US uses the so-called values to kidnap its allies, or its "like-minded countries." However, when US' allies try to cooperate with China and Russia based on their own interests, Washington interferes in a hegemonic way because it believes it is inconsistent with the US' geopolitical interests. The so-called allies, in the end, serve nothing but US' interests.

Hungary is such an example. It is the first European country to sign the cooperation document with China on the Belt and Road Initiative. After the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, Hungary is also the first EU country to approve emergency use of Chinese vaccines and Orban has also received injection of Chinese vaccine himself. The US does not give its allies the freedom to pursue their own interests. For countries like Hungary, the US will try everything to suppress or isolate them.

"As Hungary covets close ties with Russia and China, (US) President Joe Biden has yet to send an ambassador to Budapest nearly a year into his administration," the Financial Times reported. To interfere in Hungary's elections next year, Washington may even demonize the Orban administration, trying to marginalize it from the US-led Western society.

Hungary has made relatively more autonomous diplomatic choices in the EU. The US has noticed this, and thus has stepped up its efforts to interfere with the EU. Just like Washington manipulating Lithuania on the Taiwan question, it has also tried to suppress Hungary's choices when it comes to relations with China. 

In the EU and NATO, there are few other politicians who openly challenge US' China policies. US' behavior is overbearing.

Unlike Orban, Peter Marki-Zay, Hungarian opposition candidate for the 2022 election, has shown his "loyalty" to the West by accusing Orban of "betraying the Western alliance" and is a "huge threat for the Western world." Just like its previous tricks in launching "color revolutions" in other countries, Washington is again trying to support a pro-West opposition, interfere in elections, hype protests and unseat those it regards as a thorn in its side. Such US operations are much too familiar. 

However, most of the regimes "supported" by the US led their country into chaos after taking office. The US does not care about other countries' environment and people's livelihood after intervening in their elections. It aims at nothing but subversion of those who do not follow its dictation and whether these puppet governments really care about its people is not in its consideration. This reflects the US' arrogance - it believes that other countries can follow the path of Washington's strategic plan. It even thinks that with national strength, it can suppress the real needs of other countries' people. But this is not the case at all.

The US has repeatedly used the Magnitsky Act to exercise unlawful long-arm jurisdiction over other countries, especially over those countries that are regarded as "adversaries." Washington has many empty words on democracy, but in fact, it is just a disguise serving the US' geopolitical needs and interests. Such US intervention will lead to only one result: The US is a bad example of democracy, and the countries where US interventions are successful will have an unpromising future as well.

The author is a professor at the Institute of International Relations of China Foreign Affairs University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn