Crumbling democracy Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

A few years ago, no one would believe that the US can become as rotten as it is today underneath its glitz and glamour. More and more young lives in the US are randomly lost in horrifying murders. Yet the judicial system there failed to protect them or rest their souls with timely and justified handling of the criminals.

The trial of Alton Spann, an African-American charged with first degree murder among other crimes for the shooting death of Chinese student Zheng Shaoxiong during a robbery in Chicago, will take place on Wednesday local time, according to the website of the Western Returned Scholars Association (Overseas-educated Scholars Association of China). Some are concerned whether the handling of the case will end up in a disappointing result. 

The concern comes from distrust toward the US judicial system, because of another heartbreaking story in this once "paradise" for overseas students. In 2017, Yingying Zhang, a 26-year-old Chinese researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, went missing barely two months after arriving in the US. She was kidnapped, raped, stabbed, choked and decapitated. Yet it took 769 days after Zhang's life was taken before the case was closed, with the murder sentenced to life imprisonment. The whole process and the result have not given Chinese people any comfort. 

Nearly a month has passed since Zheng was killed. The judicial process of the case has just begun. No one knows whether Zheng's family will be hurt again by the inefficiency of the US system, or simply injustice.  

"The US is the world's leading power, no doubt. But it is also a country with the world's leading crime rate, thanks to its chaotic judicial system," Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Global Times.

Take Chicago, a city where two brilliant Chinese students were fatally shot this year. "Chicago sees a deadliest summer in 2021 with gun violence on the rise," CNN reported in October, noting that 1,606 people were shot in the city in a single three-month summer period. On Tuesday, a 15-year-old student opened fire at a high school in Oxford, Michigan, killing three and injuring eight.

In those reports, people see a country with no social security, and a place where deaths occur every now and then. What's happening in the US is simply unimaginable in any civilized society.

Worse, the US judicial system is far from capable of bringing order and justice to society. Take the case of Kyle Rittenhouse, who was accused of killing two people during protests. He faced six criminal counts yet walked free. His verdict triggered huge debates and more protests across the US. The case, a symbol of the growing divide in the US over justice, guns and violence, was highly politicized. It tossed out so many questions without answers. But one thing is for sure: The US judicial system is not safeguarding social justice, but has become a political tool.  

A Quinnipiac University poll released in November found that "Americans have a dim view of the nation's highest judicial body," according to Business Insider. The poll shows more than 60 percent of the respondents said the Supreme Court is motivated primarily by politics, while only 32 percent said it's motivated by the law.

As a result, the US has become a place where people can feel safe only with a gun in their hands, where Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old teenager, sensed the need to hit the streets during demonstrations "to protect private property" with a semi-automatic rifle. 

When Chinese students accidentally fall victim to such a judicial and governing system, quite a few observers have little faith in wishing for a fair judgment. When Black Lives Matter and White Supremacy campaigns further complicate the US legal system, the faith is even fainter. 

Against this backdrop, it's uncertain what kind of democracy Washington will try to present the world in the upcoming "Summit for Democracy" when the US cannot even offer a convincing judicial handling of criminal cases, which claimed the innocent lives and have shocked at least two major powers, China and the US, Lü said.