After US Downgrade, Chinese State Media Pounces

Since Standard & Poor’s (S&P) lowered the US’s long-term sovereign credit rating from AAA to AA+, media in China have sternly chastised the US, asserting that the financial difficulties the US faces are caused by the western democratic system.

Three days after the US credit rating was downgraded, the Chinese Communist Party’s official mouthpiece Xinhua published a sharply worded commentary in English. It criticized the US for threatening the world economy and scolded it for being the “largest debtor who kept eating May’s grain in April and kept robbing Peter to pay Paul without fiscal discipline.”

The People’s Daily published a commentary on Aug. 10, titled, “The Repair Capability of the US System Has Been Challenged.” It said, “What the U.S. is facing is not only a financial problem, but also a political problem.” “The economic problem the U.S. is facing has no solution except for ‘changing the system’.”

The article continued, “The once proud system of the balance between the Congress and Executive branches, the mutual complement of two parties, etc. has not ruined the historically acknowledged ability to solve problems, but has become a chronic illness which constrains economic recovery.”

In regard to this, Beijing freelance writer and well-known translator Peng Dingding, tells The Epoch Times: “Xinhua forgot to take a look at China’s credit rating. According to the logic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), that rating follows politics, it is China’s political system that has more serious problems.”

A Zhejiang Democrat Party member, Chen Shuqing, states the commentary’s underlying rationale: “Their purpose is to find every opportunity to attack American democracy for any flaw in order to prove the advantages of their autocratic system.”

“Xinhua and the People’s Daily kept publishing articles with sharp and emotional wording, declaring things like, ‘US electoral politics has kidnapped the global economy.’” US-based political commentator, Chen Pokong, commented to Radio Free Asia on Aug. 9. “The purpose is to stop China’s scholars from criticizing the CCP authorities for China’s potential monetary losses because of the downgrading, and turn people’s attention in another direction.”

Financial Network reported on Aug. 7 that, according to the figures published by the US Treasury, China holds US$1.16 trillion worth of American debt, so the downgrade will potentially result in a loss of about US$300 billion for China.

Chen Shuqing held that, “The US credit rating downgrade is partially caused by the substantial expenses used to improve people’s living and social security. Also, to safeguard world peace, it needs to maintain a costly military force.”

“Only when a government has a heavy burden on its finances will there be national debt crisis.” He compared it with what he perceives as China’s troubles: “But how about us? Many Chinese people become poor due to expenses required to treat illnesses. Some families can’t afford to send their children to a university even after they have been admitted,” Chen Shuqing added.

“Though the social benefits of the CCP’s own people are so meager and the people have no sense of security, the regime attacks the democratic system of a different country as inadequate and harmful. It’s really a huge joke,” he said.

Read the original Chinese article.

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