Photo taken on Nov. 19, 2021 shows the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)
Washington is seeking to exploit an ostensibly global anti-corruption effort to politically pressure and economically plunder those who go against its will, a renowned Chinese expert said.
In the U.S. led program, the yardstick for someone to be corrupt or not is whether he or she obeys the U.S.. The logic is “if you are with the U.S. you are not corrupt, otherwise you must be corrupt,” Shen Yi, professor with Fudan University in Shanghai, said in a recent interview with Xinhuanet.
U.S. secretary of state Anthony Blinken announced the establishment of a State Department Coordinator on Global Anticorruption, during the so-called “Summit for Democracy” convened in December. The U.S. government is also pushing for a “global anti-corruption rapid response fund”.
Through its highly selective criterion, the U.S. muddies the water of global anti-corruption cooperation. “Obviously it goes against the goal of building a cleaner international society,” Shen added.
The American democracy has lost its luster in the world amid the country’s gross mishandling of COVID-19, therefore Washington turns to anti-corruption as another tool for interference, labeling countries and entities it doesn’t like as corrupt and probably sanction them.
By setting up the so-called anti-corruption fund, the U.S. encourages people to trump up charges against each other in international financial activities. The United States will see money made from fines, confiscation and sanctions swell its coffers, especially when it has so much debt that it cannot pay back, Shen said.
In fact, the United States itself is far from corruption-free. Deeds considered illicit in most countries are legalized in the United States through the American lawmaking system. “For example, interest groups, companies and influential people can openly buy policies and whitewash their acts as lobbying.”
The United States has also used anti-corruption charges and sanctions to coerce foreign companies and executives, facilitating U.S. enterprises’ malicious acquisitions, Shen added, quoting the fate of French conglomerate Alstom as an example.
Alstom had to sell its core business to its main U.S. competitor, General Electric, after being heavily fined by the U.S. Department of Justice and one of its executives was arrested on a business trip to the U.S..
“Such acts call for tit-for-tat revenges and may sour global business environment,” Shen added.