The US government’s inability to keep from lurching toward another financial crisis is being cited by China’s official Xinhua News Agency as compelling justification for the world to “de-Americanize”.
The failure of US leaders to find common ground for resuming suspended government operations and avoiding default on the nation’s massive debt presents compelling reasons for an anxious world to take steps to de-Americanize, reads a Xinhua editorial published Sunday. State-run media like Xinhua often serve as mouthpieces for the nation’s Communist Party leadership.
“As US politicians of both political parties [fail to achieve a] viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world,” reads the editorial.
The hegemony that the US has maintained since World War II has produced “such alarming days when the destinies of others are in the hands of a hypocritical nation” and “must be terminated,” it argues.
“A new world order should be put in place, according to which all nations, big or small, poor or rich, can have their key interests respected and protected on an equal footing.
“The cyclical stagnation in Washington for a viable bipartisan solution over a federal budget and an approval for raising debt ceiling has again left many nations’ tremendous dollar assets in jeopardy and the international community highly agonized.
“Instead of honoring its duties as a responsible leading power, a self-serving Washington has abused its superpower status and introduced even more chaos into the world by shifting financial risks overseas,” the editorial argues, while also stoking “regional tensions amid territorial disputes, and fighting unwarranted wars under the cover of outright lies.”
The editorial goes on to argue that the world can help protect itself from US irresponsibility by giving emerging economies more influence in international financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. It also calls for the creation of a “new international reserve currency… to replace the dominant U.S. dollar.”
During the past week Beijing has called on the US government to quickly strike a deal so the global economy can be spared the painful economic fallout from yet another US political squabble. As the holder of $1.28 trillion in US treasuries, China is the nation’s biggest creditors and the nation most at risk in the event of a US debt default — as well as the biggest potential foreign victim of yet another global economic crisis triggered by a messy US political system.