By Zhong Sheng, People’s Daily
Recently, some politicians and media outlets in the U.S. have repeatedly concocted and spread disinformation in order to smear and defame China over the Ukraine issue. The practice of fabricating rumors to shift the blame has been proven despicable and futile by facts. Such acts can’t cover up America’s responsibility for the Ukraine crisis. Instead, they have further exposed the country’s dangerous intention of stirring up trouble and plunging the world into chaos.
The evolution of the Ukraine issue is something China does not want to see. As a permanent member of the United Nations (UN) Security Council, China always adopts an objective, fair, and responsible attitude toward global events, makes judgments and takes its stand independently based on the merits of the matter itself.
There is a complex historical background and context behind the Ukraine issue, which needs to be solved with a cool head and a rational mind.
China believes that to resolve the current crisis, countries must uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and respect and protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, adhere to the principle of indivisible security and accommodate the legitimate security concerns of the parties involved, settle disputes by peaceful means through dialogue and negotiation, and keep in mind the long-term peace and stability of the region and put in place a balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture.
China’s stance on the Ukraine issue is open and straightforward, and its suggestions for resolving the Ukraine crisis positive and constructive.
At the moment, the top priority in resolving the Ukraine crisis is to promote peace talks, rather than adding fuel to the flames of tensions between Ukraine and Russia.
China stands, as always, on the side of peace, cooperation, fairness, and justice, supports any endeavor that helps ease the tense situation and bring a political solution to the crisis, and opposes any action that goes against diplomatic settlement of the issue and escalates the tensions.
China has maintained close communication with relevant parties and made efforts to facilitate peace talks. It is ready to continue playing a constructive role in promoting peace talks between Russia and Ukraine and work alongside with the international community to carry out necessary mediation when needed.
China has responded to the Ukraine issue in a responsible way. What it has done to help resolve the crisis has truly demonstrated the sense of responsibility a major country is supposed to have.
In contrast, certain country attempts to create a crisis, benefit from the crisis, and shift its burden of crises onto others, which will only harm both itself and others.
China does not agree to the idea of resolving the Ukraine issue with sanctions and opposes unilateral sanctions that lack the basis of international law.
Sanctions have never been an effective approach to solving problems, but only cause serious difficulty for the economy and people’s livelihood in countries concerned and worsen division and confrontation.
History has long proven that sanctions not only result in an economic situation where multiple players lose, but disrupt the process of political settlement.
According to data released by the U.S. Treasury Department, the number of sanctions imposed by the U.S. has climbed 10 times during the past two decades, and the last U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed 3,800 sanctions during his presidency, which means the administration wielded the big stick of sanctions about three times a day.
The unilateral sanctions imposed by the U.S. have inflicted a lot of trouble on the world and caused persistent and systemic human rights violations. The country should stop abusing sanctions and abandon the futile attempt to coerce other countries into doing things they oppose.
The fact that some politicians and media outlets in the U.S. cooked up and disseminated disinformation over the Ukraine issue has reminded people of America’s disgraceful record of using lies and rumors as pretexts to frequently wage wars.
Throughout its less than 250 years of history, there were only less than 20 years when the U.S. didn’t launch military operations against foreign countries. And among the diverse pretexts for its military interventions abroad, some are even false information fabricated by the U.S. itself.
The U.S. once used a small tube of white powder as evidence of the so-called weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and launched military strikes against the latter, bringing terrible disasters to the Iraqi people.
It also used a video deliberately staged by the White Helmets, an organization funded by Western intelligence agencies, as evidence to conduct air strikes in Syria.
Such lessons are not long gone. The U.S. should reflect on its wrongful actions rather than repeat the same mistakes.
George Frost Kennan, former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, warned the U.S. government in the 1990s that expanding NATO up to Russia’s borders would be “the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-cold-war era”.
As the instigator of the Ukraine crisis, the U.S. should reflect on its role in the crisis and stop deceiving and confusing the public. It’s about time the country shouldered its due responsibility, took practical actions to help alleviate tensions and solve problems and contributed to world peace.
(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People’s Daily to express its views on foreign policy and international affairs.)
