Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

During the Shangri-La Dialogue, the President of Timor-Leste José Ramos-Horta criticized some countries for having a tunnel vision toward China's rise by believing that China is a regional and global threat. Such views are fundamentally unconvincing. 

Now, some Western countries have locked themselves into a narrow and closed mindset, and view the world in this way. At the same time, they also want to limit and influence other countries with this mindset, preventing other countries from seeing the facts. 

However, the international community's eyes are clear, they know who the colonizers, barbarians, and robbers are, and they only choose to move toward civilization.

Chen Hong, executive director of Asia Pacific Studies Center at East China Normal University, told the Global Times that Timor-Leste's views represent those of its fellow countries. First, Timor-Leste is a country that gained sovereignty and independence after getting rid of colonial shackles. 

"In the face of various forces competing on the international arena, Timor-Leste represents the voice of those who had been oppressed and exploited by Western colonizers. In fact, even after gaining independence, they still face pressures and coercions from Western powers. Although the diplomatic relations between Timor-Leste and China have not been long, Dili deeply perceives how China, as a responsible major country, has been proactive and constructively cooperating with developing countries based on equality, mutual benefits, and mutual respect," he said.

Moreover, the US is now focusing on instigating some developing countries with the fabricated "China threat theory." However, the actual threats these countries are facing are food security and climate change. Therefore, demonizing China as a "threat" and amplifying differences between China and other countries is Washington's vicious means to coax and coerce them into its anti-China track, Chen added. 

Lü Xiang, research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, expressed similar views that China pursues win-win cooperation both politically and economically, which developing countries see very clearly. They benefit more from their relationship with China and feel more respected. Hence, this is a statement from a leader of a small emerging country, but it represents the voice of a large part of the world's countries.

For South Pacific countries, their most pivotal goal is to improve their economies, relieve poverty and lift the people's livelihoods. Some island countries are also facing a looming existential crisis with possible rising sea levels that may bring about catastrophic effects on them. As a matter of fact, peace, stability and prosperity are top of those countries' agenda, not to act as chess pieces in Washington's power game with the ulterior motive to deter, thwart and suppress China's peaceful development, Chen noted.

The US' intentions are clear not only to the South Pacific countries, but also to many of its allies. "Now Washington is putting pressure on both allied countries and other related countries, forcing them to take sides against China. However, judging from the Shangri-La Dialogue, many countries, including US allies, have begun to feel a sense of tension that they do not want to feel, and they do not want to see the US pulling everyone onto the anti-China chariot," Lü said

The world is changing, but the US still wants to pretend to be asleep. Washington's two hands, one used to cover its own eyes, and the other trying to cover other countries' eyes, attempting to impose its narrow-minded ideas on others' perspectives. This not only does not hold water, but also no one is willing to foot the bill.

Recently, an article in Foreign Policy magazine pointed out that "few Indo-Pacific countries assess the choice in front of them in dichotomous terms. Multi-alignment—when states form overlapping relationships with several major powers—is not a back-up option for these states but their first choice."

The US must either restrain its actions of containing the development of other countries or face enormous losses.