‘De-Americanized’ world needed after US government shutdown: Beijing

While US politicians grapple with how to reopen their shuttered government and avoid a potentially disastrous default on their debt, the world should consider ‘de-Americanizing’, a commentary by Xinhua news agency said yesterday.

“As US politicians of both political parties [fail to find a] viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world,” the commentary said.

In a lengthy polemic against US hegemony since World War II, it added: “Such alarming days when the destinies of others are in the hands of a hypocritical nation have to be terminated.”

“A new world order should be put in place, according to which all nations, big or small, poor or rich, can have their key interests respected and protected on an equal footing,” it said.

Negotiations over how to end the budgetary impasse have shifted to the US Senate after House Representatives failed to strike a deal with US Barack President Obama on extending borrowing authority ahead of the deadline on Thursday.

Beijing has in recent days issued warnings as well as appeals for a deal, all the while emphasizing the inseparable economic ties that bind the world’s two biggest economies.

“The cyclical stagnation in Washington for a viable bipartisan solution over a federal budget and an approval for raising the debt ceiling has again left many nations’ tremendous [US] dollar assets in jeopardy and the international community highly agonized,” the commentary said.

China is the biggest foreign holder of US Treasury bonds, worth a total of US$1.28 trillion, according to US government data.

“Instead of honoring its duties as a responsible leading power, a self-serving Washington has abused its superpower status and introduced even more chaos into the world by shifting financial risks overseas,” but equally stoked “regional tensions amid territorial disputes, and fighting unwarranted wars under the cover of outright lies” the commentary said.

It added that emerging economies should have a greater say in major international financial institutions the World Bank and the IMF, and proposed a “new international reserve currency that is to be created to replace the dominant US dollar.”

China has only slightly more weight than Italy at the IMF, which has been headed by a European since its creation in 1944.

A governance reform has been in the works for three years, but its implementation has been blocked by the effective veto of the US.