U.S. addiction to military competition threatens global military security

By Zhong Sheng

The U.S. is a country that has the most advanced weapons in the world, but it is also one that tries the best to fan up military threat of other countries.

Not long ago, U.S. representatives once again put on a show at the 75th session of the UN General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, claiming Russia’s and China’s nuclear development was seriously threatening international peace and security.

Such trick of the U.S. to call black white was nothing but an excuse for the country to duck its arm control obligation, by which it tries to loosen restrictions and establish absolute military advantages.

The U.S. always ranks the first in the world regarding military expenditure. It spent over $700 billion in 2019, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the world’s total and surpassing the sum of the 10 countries that followed it. However, being armed to the teeth is not enough for certain U.S. politicians who recently upgraded their nuclear force, lowered the threshold of using nuclear weapons, deployed low yield nuclear warheads and fanned up the so-called “China-U.S.-Russia trilateral arms control negotiation” to escape from its special and primary responsibilities in nuclear disarmament. Recently, the U.S. even discussed the restarting of nuclear tests, as if it never knew that there’s a red line which can never be crossed, or intended to undermine global strategic security.

In a word, the U.S. is upholding a hegemonic approach to security that prioritizes the interests of itself, and always “fantasizes” about external threats with a distorted mindset to exaggerate its national security demand.

For instance, the country blatantly takes Russia and China as strategic competitors in its National Security Strategy, trying to provoke confrontation among major countries. In addition, seeking aerospace supremacy, the U.S. considers the outer space as a new battlefield and officially established the U.S. Space Force this year. It plans to deploy missile interceptors in the space, which will only turn the outer space into a battlefield.

Of course, the U.S. would always find a fig leaf. When it comes to disarmament and proliferation, Washington is making Compliance Report every year, pretending to be a judge that points fingers at other countries’ arm control and proliferation practices, and making itself a “role model” in this regard.

However, the fig leaf is never able to cover the country’s withdrawal from treaties and organizations. It pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the Treaty on Open Skies, unsigned the Arms Trade Treaty, and stood in the way of negotiations for a protocol that includes a verification regime to the Biological Weapons Convention. The U.S. is standing on the opposite side of international justice.

As the world’s only country with chemical weapon stocks, the U.S. repeatedly postponed the elimination of chemical weapons, and is reluctant to fulfill its obligations, becoming the largest barrier in building a world free of chemical weapons.

What the U.S. does seriously undermines global strategic balance and stability, and hinders international arm control and disarmament. It has received wide condemnation from the international society. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pointed out that the U.S. is becoming increasingly dangerous and unforeseeable in arm control.

Facts speak louder than words. The war record and military presence of the U.S. are able to astonish everyone. In the 240 years of the U.S. history, only 16 years are war-free. According to a Western scholar, only 3 among the over 190 countries recognized by the UN haven’t had a war with the U.S. or are free of the latter’s military intervention. Establishing hundreds of military bases around the world, the U.S. has deployed anti-missile systems in Asia-Pacific and Central and Eastern Europe, and seeks to deploy land-based intermediate-range missiles in Asia-Pacific and Europe to enhance its military presence and build absolute advantages. The U.S. also sends its aircraft near the airspace of other countries, its warships around the sea waters of other countries, and even shows off its muscle in name of the so-called “freedom” of navigation. Such practice goes against today’s general trend of peace and development.

Anyone that is addicted to zero-sum game and the abuse of military power has no way out facing the indestructible power of peace and justice, the facts, and brightness. It is noteworthy that no country in today’s world is able to have absolute security by its own strength, and no country can get its own stability from other countries’ turbulences. Any practice that threatens global security will be firmly opposed by the world. Let us bear in mind the great truth of history: Justice will prevail. Peace will prevail. The people will prevail.

(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People’s Daily to express its views on foreign policy.)