Opinion | Biden administration threatens others to obey unreasonable, US-friendly sanctions?

By Edward Hei Leung, LegCo Member

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki threatened China with retaliatory measures if it does not follow sanctions against Russian Federation. Commerce secretary Gina Raimondo further elaborated Psaki's words, saying that the Biden administration could prohibit Chinese enterprises from using American equipment and software important to their productions. Is the US request reasonable, given Russia-Ukraine military conflict?

Basically, no one should glorify wars in which thousands of lives would be killed. Yet, what complicates the worrying situation is malicious intent, both individual and national. For those accusing China, they have to wonder if the US truly help Ukraine without any selfishness behind.

Remember that the US-built NATO has already expanded five times after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Sad but true, western leaders got engulfed into the exultation of success, ignoring the immediate needs to redefine their relations with Russia. Recently, Joseph Borrel, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, admitted that the West had missed the opportunities of Russia's rapprochement, not to mention mistakes in promising Ukraine NATO membership. To put it simple, that was an era full of western pride and prejudice against Russia.

Asked by US senator Bernie Sanders, "if US won't accept Cuba, Mexico or any other countries in Central and Latin America forming a military alliance with US adversaries, why should Russia accept?" In 2014, Dr. Kissinger, the former US secretary of state, also warned that Ukraine must not be either side's outpost against the other and the red line is NATO membership.

Aside from Russia's security concerns, the US continuously escalated tensions by imposing sanctions and delivering weapons in particular. As described by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, "If you see two people arguing and about to fight, do you give them weapons or first help them to work it out and find out what happened before?" Hua believes that the concept is simple, so does Russia-Ukraine military conflict. In other words, if the US is concerned about the biggest refugee crisis in Europe after World War Two, why does it deliver deadly weapons instead of taking the mediating role? Don't let anger control us, especially for those anti-war protesters. Here, the clarification on the role US has taken is of utmost importance.

No matter how politically justified the so-called sanction is, it cannot disguise the selfishness of the Biden administration. Well, if Jen Psaki strongly believes the usefulness of sanctions, can they give the reasons why the economic tool is tailor-made on behalf of US itself? Biden, for instance, seemingly bans imports of Russian energy resources including crude oil, the one only accounting for 8% in its total oil import. When it comes to Russian uranium irreplaceable to US nuclear power generation in short term, he chooses to step down apparently. It does not make sense for other countries to obey a US-friendly sanction.

"Sanctions can never effectively solve problems", "we respect and protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries", "the more tense the situation, the more important the talks", as stated by the Foreign Ministry repeatedly. China takes a firm and clear stand on Russia-Ukraine crisis. The US choose to criticize rather than understand the rationales behind. It is another kind of pride and prejudice, if others do not follow the same western rules.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

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