No invite to summit: US upsets China

Beijing: China on Saturday accused the US of using democracy as a “weapon of mass destruction” to “stoke divisions and confrontation” as it slammed the Summit for Democracy organised by the Biden administration, which Beijing portrays as a new front being formed by America to isolate it to halt its rise.

The two-day summit attended by over 100 world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, concluded on Friday with a call to evaluate progress in safeguarding fair elections, protecting human rights and fighting corruption.

While the US omitted China and Russia from the list of invitees, Beijing was furious over the invitation to the self-governing island Taiwan, which China said is a blatant violation of the ‘One China’ policy that considers Taipei as the integral part of the Chinese mainland. In what could be Taiwan’s most high profile international conference for decades, its Minister without Portfolio Audrey Tang and Hsiao Bikhim, head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US, took part in the summit.

Tang, who spoke at a panel discussion on ‘Countering Digital Authoritarianism and Affirming Democratic Values’, said governments should work with civil society groups to develop digital democracy to tackle the various challenges facing the world, Taiwan media reports said.

The Chinese foreign ministry, which has been attacking the summit in the past few weeks, issued a lengthy statement accusing the US of stocking divisions in the name of democracy. “Stoking division and confrontation in the name of democracy is to backpedal in history, and will bring nothing but turmoil and disaster to the world,” the statement said.