United States is set to hold the Summit for Democracy on December 9 and 10, 2021, only inviting 110 countries and regions. For Asian countries, Japan, South Korea and other major US allies are on the list, while Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore are not.
Once such a summit is convened, whether a country is a democratic one or not is not up to its own nationals nor any political theory. Rather, the answer appears to lie in the hands of the United States. Nevertheless, does the United States still count as the vanguard of the democratic society? The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, a Swedish think-tank, recently published the Global State of Democracy Report 2021, where the United States is flagged as a “backsliding democracy”. The report points out that the trust crisis in the 2020 election and the riots in the White House have revealed the true colors of the American “democracy”, an extremely ironic comparison to the summit.
The summit, hyped by the United States, is an attempt to tear the world apart under the guise of democracy. Since the end of the Cold War, all countries have been working together to bridge the world, realizing globalization of several decades. However, if we look at this list, half of the nearly 200 national entities around the world are not invited to the summit, just because the United States does not favor them or views them as authoritarian regimes, including China and Russia, and even Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam which are in relatively close relations with the United States. However, not all of the invited countries have the real democracy or human rights. Der Tagesspiegel, a German daily newspaper, believes that if measured by the Western standards, 77 of the 110 countries and regions invited by Biden count as democratic countries at most. A question is also asked: Is the standard set too low, or is this summit originally intended for other purposes?
By holding the Summit, the United States has another thing in mind. Geopolitics. Taking India as an example, while it always claims to be the largest democracy in the world, Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, bluntly stated in his visit to India that India’s democracy was “backsliding” and he also issued warning to the country on discrimination issues against its ethnic minorities as well as suppression on opposition figures. So it is no wonder that people feel puzzled when the United States invites India over to the summit. In fact, India plays an indispensable role for the United States in its Indo-Pacific strategy by checking and balancing China on the Sino-Indian border. Amy Hawthorne, research director of Project on Middle East Democracy, a non-profit organization, once expressed her view that the United States was attempting to win over democracies that are troubled, backsliding and geographically adjacent to China, such as India, the Philippines, etc. for the sake of its national strategy in its competition with China.
Same as the Asia-Pacific region, Iraq, the Middle East country, still appears on the list of invitees despite its serious defects of its democracy, for which the only reason is its neighbor, Iran. The United States needs to draw Iraq in to cope with its enemies. The European list is even more interesting. Among the 27 EU member states, only Hungary, which in is relatively close relations with China and Russia, is not invited, for which the political intention is clear. The Bulwark, an American conservative media, even believes that “there are strong arguments not inviting Hungary”, for the country’s Prime Minister, Orban Viktor, is just a “mini-Putin”. However, it is almost known to everyone that Hungary is more democratic than many countries on the list.
Therefore, the summit is essentially the US attempts to gain more alliances based on Cold War mentality and to split the international society for its own geopolitical interests, which runs counter to globalization. What Singapore wants is not another Cold War but a more closely-connected world. With the global COVID crisis, the interruption of global supply chain as well as the obstacles occurring in trade around the world, Singapore’s economy is facing unprecedented difficulties. Against this background, Singapore needs investment and trade within ASEAN and with China, EU and other countries, rather than attending the summit while split by the summit from other Asian neighbors. It would be a blessing for Singapore not to attend a democracy summit which is anything but democratic!
Eric Wong
