The real face of the US

This refers to the article ‘Making sense of China’ by Amanat Ali Chaudhry (July 27). Towards the end of his article, the writer says: “Their (Western capitals) fear is that China will export an authoritarian model of government to the world down the line by showcasing its marvelous economic progress as a proof of the success of the model. This explains why the Trump administration has described China as a 'revisionist power' and a 'rival' out to shape a world antithetical to US values and interests”. During decades of our excellent relations with it, we experienced no attempt by China to force its political system on us. Also, as against the US’s divisive policy of ‘with us or against us’, China is linking up and uniting the world, through its Belt and Road initiative.

And as for US values and interests’, well, all we have seen is that together with its allies, the US has destroyed Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya in the recent past, with no justification, and now the US is after Iran. And the problems of India are due to its misplaced ambition of dominating the region with American help. In any case, Trump’s unqualified backing for extremists like Netanyahu and Modi hardly qualifies him as an upholder of human rights and values.

S R H Hashmi

Karachi