Crumbling US democracy. Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

The US' plan to host a "Leaders Summit for Democracy" is another attempt to reduce the global community to a simplistic dichotomy of "democracy versus autocracy;" narcissistic window-dressing that is doomed to fail as it evokes nothing but disruption, division and even confrontation. As defined in Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov's article "On Law, Rights, and Rules," while "democracy-exporting countries" intend to reshape other societies "into the Western mould" and interfere with others' domestic affairs under the pretext of promoting "democracy," they shrink back - in self-contradiction - from the prospect of a more democratic international society. 

There's no lack of examples of the West meddling in other countries' internal affairs through fabricating and exporting "standards of democracy." The most recent bits of drama to have been packaged to escalate the West's confrontation with Russia must include the case of Alexei Navalny. Russia's request to disclose privately the exact formula of the poison administered to Navalny was denied by Germany. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) also rejected Russia's offer to form a joint probe over the chemical allegedly used to poison Navalny. With all its strict set of rules on how material evidence should be handled during investigations, there is no reason for the OPCW's failure to act coherently and openly if the agency serves in the interest of humankind rather than a select few countries. 

Given that Navalny and his Western supporters are crystal clear on their improbability to transform Russia's political arena, the only purpose for orchestrating such drama is to facilitate sanctions from the US and its allies with the excuse of human rights abuse and non-compliance with Western democratic standards. By 2019, Navalny's fund has received foreign "donations" worth more than 1 billion rubles. 

Cuba has long been another major target. For nearly six decades, the US has enforced economic, commercial and financial embargoes against the Caribbean country, severely restricting the flow of goods to the island and threatening Cuban people's livelihoods. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has said these embargos are "genocidal" and calls such moves by the US "politics of economic asphyxiation."

If the brainwashing propaganda against Russia, Cuba, China and other countries in the name of democracy and human right is based on myths, what are the reactions of the West to dissents at home? 

Back in the 1970s, Noam Chomsky, a linguist, philosopher and social activist, spent years in prison during the Vietnam War because of his opposition to the US government's pro-war agenda. 

Angela Davis, one of America's best known activists, feminists and academics of the 1960s and 1970s, was silenced, persecuted and criminalized by the US government for her political beliefs. 

A more recent example is Brett Crozier, former commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, who was immediately relieved of command after the leakage of a letter he had sent to Navy leaders due to the coronavirus disease outbreak onboard his ship, signaling the US government's unhesitating willingness to stifle any internal dissent.

One question will suffice to illustrate my point: Does the West provide the same level of protection and support for dissidents who demand "regime change" or to "overthrow the entire political system" at home, as they do in other countries? 

It seems that only US politicians have the right to declare who complies with principles of democracy and who does not. They see Cuba's military dictatorial Batista regime as democratic and Vladimir Putin's government as not. Franklin Roosevelt's often-quoted remarks about the dictator of Nicaragua Anastasio Somoza García - "Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch" - betray the US' blatant double standards. 

The US government conceitedly believes that it has the obligation to spread its political system - "the best one to ever exist" - to every corner of the world. Therefore, it has spared no expenses to launch modern-day crusades against other "undemocratic" nations time after time. Yet America's democratic experiment has ultimately led nowhere: It has been proven a failure in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya among other nations. It is entirely predictable that the "Leaders' Summit for Democracy" will be yet another debacle.

Before US policy sinks into complete failure, its politicians must acknowledge that the interests of all other countries are as legitimate as those of the US, that all countries can promote political, social and economic development in their own spheres without American intervention, and finally, that the US needs to deal with every country as it is, not as the US wishes them to be.

"Vodka is a drink as honest as you ever find, never pretending to be something it is not," said the Russian rock musician Andrey Makarevich. And so it is. That is also a truth about China's Moutai, Cuba's rum and their equivalent in other countries.  

The author is a commentator on international affairs, writing regularly for Xinhua News Agency, Global Times, CGTN, etc. He can be reached at xinping604@gmail.com