SHANGHAI, March 31 (Xinhua) -- By co-hosting the second "Summit for Democracy" with hand-picked participants, the United States is imposing its own brand of democracy on other countries to further divide the world and maintain hegemony, said American and Chinese scholars based in Shanghai.
"I think what it revealed above all, was this sort of hypocrisy in the American side that they were the promoters of global democracy," Josef Gregory Mahoney, an American professor of politics and international relations at the East China Normal University, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
The United States is trying to use "a very narrow concept of democracy as a tool for dividing the world," which is "a very undemocratic approach," noted Mahoney.
The country is also trying to use its power to limit the development and growth of other countries and push forward zero-sum perspective, said the professor.
Some analysts have pointed out that Washington, with a deep-rooted Cold War mentality, is trying to use the summit as a political tool to maintain its own hegemony.
In the name of democracy, the "Summit for Democracy" enforces hegemony in practice, according to Shen Yi, director of the International Research Institute of Global Cyberspace Governance of Fudan University.
"The U.S.-style democracy is based on its own standard and only works for the rich group and the political elite," noted Shen.
"Think of the U.S. handling of toxic chemicals after the recent train derailment in the state of Ohio. Think of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse and the panic it caused in the market. These have been deliberately downplayed (by the U.S. government)," he added.
In Mahoney's view, the only way that humanity can survive in a world with challenges like climate change and the threat of conflict is to find common ground and build a shared future together. ■