Wang Wen

Opinion | Trump’s indictment and bank collapses a poor advertisement for US democracy

The news coming out of the world’s largest economy – from mass shootings to a divided political system – has heightened Chinese youths’ unfavourable view of the US

The recent Summit for Democracy appears to be little more than a moralising platform to sell a political system that is far from ideal

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A shadow is cast on the wall as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers remarks during the Summit for Democracy at the Washington Convention Centre in Washington on March 30. Photo: Reuters

Wang Wen

Published: 8:15am, 4 Apr 2023

The US staged the second Summit for Democracy last week. Chinese are chuckling at the irony as they await details of a criminal investigation into hush money paid on behalf of former US president Donald Trump before election day in 2016. The former American leader should also be ashamed of his role in the January 6 insurrection.

Chinese didn’t always feel the need, nor have the ammunition, to lampoon the US political system. However, the generation of young people who shouted “Long live President Wilson” at the end of World War I, and the idealistic generation who endorsed a “fight for freedom and democracy” in Tiananmen Square in 1989, have little in common with young Chinese people today who see no upside to emulating American democracy.

The many political, social and military misfortunes that have befallen the US this century have confused and outraged my students, even as they worry about the country that was once a source of envy.

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, declaring the ideal of a “a government of the people, by the people, for the people”, has long been a source of inspiration to Chinese scholars past and present. We now mourn this broken, unfulfilled American dream.

Chinese people still marvel at American technological innovation. Many of my students are fascinated by ChatGPT-4 and admire Tesla founder Elon Musk. Yet, it’s incomprehensible to them that a country with so much of everything has become so deeply divided at its core.

They see US democracy as being in a shambles as it can’t live up to a primary democratic principle: the peaceful transfer of power. They see elections won by staggering amounts money being used to sling hateful half-truths at opponents, and at China. They see US decision-making bodies gridlocked, their members defiant and angry.