A self-proclaimed "shining city upon a hill," the United States has long positioned itself as "greater" and "superior" than other countries. However, the so-called American values it touted are nothing more than an ideological tool to safeguard its global hegemony. The "shining city" has been seeing its halo fading away amid social disparity, political polarization, uncontrollable epidemic and its futile foreign intervention.

BEIJING, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Photos circulating worldwide of U.S. troops' helter-skelter withdrawal from Kabul in mid-August have laid bare the "crippled hegemony" of the United States.

Such a prophecy was made as early as 2002, nearly 20 years ago, by late Yale University professor Immanuel Wallerstein, who wrote in an article in Foreign Policy magazine that the expansion of the "war on terror," which began as America launched Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan shortly after the 9/11 attacks, would "rapidly diminish the already declining power of the United States in the world."

"By any measure, the 'war on terror' was the biggest project of the period of American hegemony that began when the Cold War ended -- a period that has now reached its dusk," Foreign Affairs magazine argued in an article published recently.

DOMESTIC WOES

The sole superpower has now turned into a "failed state," as U.S. magazine The Atlantic commented. Its decades-long hegemony pales amid rising social unrest, decaying political governance, and clumsy epidemic response, which has been dragged down by spats over such science-based anti-virus protocols as mask mandates, self-isolation and social distancing.

Like a magnifying glass, the pandemic exposes deep-seated woes in the United States, including an insurmountable wealth gap (the richest one percent of Americans now holding much more wealth than the bottom 50 percent), rampant money politics (lobbying, campaign contributions, the revolving door, and manipulating mainstream media) and systemic racism (police violence against African Americans, hate crimes against Asians, etc.).

In such a politically polarized and highly fragmented society as it is today, American politicians obsessed with votes and partisanship and mired in veto politics of "no for no's sake" have neither the will nor the ability to solve the conundrums fundamentally sapping the American power.

Francis Fukuyama, a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, pointed out in an article published in The Economist in August that the long-term sources of American weakness and decline are more domestic than international.

In a report released in May, the Pew Research Center compared public trust data from 1958 to 2021, saying that only about one quarter of Americans say they can trust the government in Washington, and distrust of government is particularly acute among younger generations.

HALO DIMMED

A self-proclaimed "shining city upon a hill," the United States has long positioned itself as "greater" and "superior" than other countries. However, the so-called American values it touted are nothing more than an ideological tool to safeguard its global hegemony. The "shining city" has been seeing its halo fading away amid social disparity, political polarization, uncontrollable epidemic and its futile foreign intervention.

A Pew Research Center poll released in June showed that only about a third of respondents in France, Spain and Greece viewed the United States as a trustworthy partner, and four in ten in France and Spain thought American democracy worked poorly.

Even among Americans themselves, about 62 percent no longer view their country as a "shining city upon a hill," a Yahoo News/YouGov poll in July last year showed.

Foreign Affairs magazine argued that in the 21st century, the U.S. government must realize that its "unipolar moment" has long gone.

At present, the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. It has entered a period of turbulence, with rising instability and uncertainty. An increasing number of people in the world have come to realize that hegemonic countries pursuing hegemonic policies and engaging in bloc confrontation and zero-sum game will only bring about conflicts, wars and disasters to humanity.

To address common challenges facing mankind, all countries must respect each other, live together as equals, pursue peaceful development, and achieve common prosperity.

The solution is not to hope for "more enlightened U.S. leadership," but instead to build a multipolar world together, Chandran Nair, founder and CEO of the Global Institute for Tomorrow, wrote in an opinion published on Oct. 3 by the South China Morning Post.