By Wang Yiwei

At the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia， Canada， investigators recently uncovered a mass grave with the remains of 215 children. After Canada passed the Indian Act in 1876， nearly 100 such indigenous boarding schools were opened across the country. The schools were aimed at assimilating aboriginal children and turning them into “civilized people” through education. According to NPR， this schooling system has its roots in the U.S. policy toward Native Americans.

Despite the lamentable human rights records of the United States， Canada and several European former imperialist nations， these same countries often like to use human rights as a political weapon to castigate countries that refuse to let the United States control their governments， central bank and foreign policy. Alleged “human rights abuses” are the tool par excellence in the new Cold War the U.S. is waging against China， Russia， Iran and oil-exporting countries that the United States does not control. By contrast， nations with appalling human rights records but which are subservient to U.S. hegemony are practically untouchable by Western media.

At his address to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum， Russian President Vladimir Putin put it very succinctly， “The degeneration of the universalist globalization model is turning into a parody， a caricature of itself， where common international rules are replaced with the laws of one country.”

Double standards

Even Singapore， a developed country deeply influenced by Western-style democracy， bears the brunt of European and North American critics simply because its economic development model and legal practices differ from those of the West.

Asian， African and Latin American countries with an awareness of their national independence have also been attacked by the same people who apply double standards on “democracy，” “good governance，” “corruption” and the “rule of law.” Government institutions， politicians， non-governmental organizations and media outlets in the West often criticize developing countries and demonize them for not accepting Western hegemony.

The issue of national defense and security， too， is regularly reported in an extremely lopsided way. For instance， the annual military expenditure of the U.S. will exceed $738 billion in 2021—which， according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies， is roughly equal to next 14 countries combined， 12 of which are U.S. allies. However， the U.S. and its Western allies accuse developing countries that have stepped up their national defense spending to defend their national sovereignty and legitimate interests of being “aggressive，” “confrontational，” or “expansionist.”