The U.S. is struggling with problems such as racism, gun violence. The report says: In November 2021, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, a Sweden-based think tank, released the Global State of Democracy listing the U.S. as a "backsliding democracy" for the first time. The Secretary General of the institute said that "the visible deterioration of democracy in the United States" is "seen in the increasing tendency to contest credible election results, the efforts to suppress participation (in elections), and the runaway polarization". Professor Xia Lu, with the School of Marxism Studies at Renmin University of China, talks about his opinions on these issues.