Editor's note: Ismail Hossain is a journalist from the Financial Express, Bangladesh. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Around 110 participants, including government representatives, civil society actors and representatives from the private sector, are attending the U.S.-led democracy summit on December 9 and 10. It is not a mere meeting of world leaders like other global summits, most of which have noble cause and aim for the well-being of the world. The summit has created wave of controversies since its announcement by U.S. President Joe Biden soon after taking office early this year.

The summit is clearly a move by the U.S. to divide the world into two camps: the good and the bad. According to the U.S. State Department, the summit is meant to galvanize themes of "defending against authoritarianism, fighting corruption and promoting respect for human rights." So, the U.S. is marking the countries it did not invite as authoritarian, corrupt and human rights abusers. This is a clear attack on the sovereignty of countries that have different social systems and government models.

Democracy is one of the most important inventions of human civilization and it is a common value of humankind. Democracy has diverse variants across the world, which have evolved in different forms in different socio-cultural environments over a long period of time. In general, democracy is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation or choose governing officials or representatives. That means whenever we talk about democracy, it always involves people and governments or administrations of everywhere. The said summit actually involves everyone across the world and divides them on ideologies severely, which is not good at all. It is an unfriendly approach of the U.S. in the time of a pandemic when governments are required to be united more than ever.  

The U.S. has been languishing with its problematic democracy for many years. Disregard of rule of law, governmental dysfunction, congressional paralysis, expansion of executive power and mistrust of elections, voter suppression, and political polarization in recent years suggest that the U.S. is no more a leader of the democratic world. Some of the countries invited have questionable democratic credentials even per the U.S. scale, but they were still invited because they are allies of the U.S. in its imperialist agenda.

The U.S. has been in the midst of human rights violations on its soil as well as many countries around the world. It also formally and legally supports many countries which have become champions of human rights violation and even engage in systemic genocide. The U.S. and the West in general have always regarded themselves as owners of democracy, as if they are issuing licenses of democracies to the world. They are preaching democracies to people of other countries about how to be democratic and judging who is democratic and who is not. But they are no longer able to carry on such moves. They are not even true to their democratic missionary approach if a country is their friend but undemocratic. It is true some countries including Bangladesh are not invited to the summit and they have problem with democratic practices in its governmental process, but the U.S. does not have moral authority to judge this or play a supervisory role.

China is not in the list of invitees, but the U.S. did not forget to invite Taiwan region, which is China's integral part. This is also a clear provocation and invasion of China's sovereignty. China's Foreign Ministry expressed strong opposition to the U.S. for inviting the Taiwan region to the so-called Summit for Democracy.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that there is only one China in the world and that the government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China, and Taiwan is a part of the Chinese territory. "Except for being a part of China, Taiwan has no other status in international law," he said. So, one wonders: What is the U.S. going to achieve by inviting Taiwan? It is obviously an invitation to open confrontation from the U.S. side which is jeopardizing global peace in the name of democracy.

China doesn't practice the U.S. style of democracy. It has its own democratic value what they call people-centered socialist democracy. It appears people of China are happy with the system, but the U.S. is not. Still China is continuously improving is democratic practices. China's State Council Information Office last week released a white paper titled "China: Democracy That Works."

The whitepaper said the people's status as masters of the country is the essence of people's democracy. It is the true essence of democracy for every country. China's whole-process people's democracy integrates process-oriented democracy with results-oriented democracy, procedural democracy with substantive democracy, direct democracy with indirect democracy, and people's democracy with the will of the state.

Some believe that the U.S. is trying to create a global alliance against China by using democracy as the dividing factor. This attempt is bound to fail because people in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world do not believe the U.S. as defender of democracy anymore. Experts say that the U.S. attempt to be a defender of democracy and human rights is a cover for its failures in Afghanistan and Syria as well as numerous other crimes such as causing humanitarian disasters and destroying sovereign order in many countries. It also tries to hide the dysfunctional democracy on its own land by announcing itself as the messiah of democracy.  

"War is the American way of life," said U.S. historian Paul Atwood. The U.S. was born, grew and became a superpower out of war, slavery and human slaughter. It always needs an enemy to exist, and if there is none, it creates one. Now the summit is attempting to create open enmity with half the world. The world has seen the suffering of the countries, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, to which the U.S. tried to export its democracy. The peace-loving people of the world will not let it happen again and again.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)