Publish Date: 25 April 2021 - 05:18

TEHRAN, Apr. 25 (MNA) – Urging the US not to model the rest of the world in its own image, China told Americans that democracy is not Coca-Cola, which tastes the same across the world.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged Washington to abandon its ideological approach to foreign policy, arguing that it is wrong of the US to try to model the rest of the world in its own image, RT reported.

Speaking with the US Council on Foreign Relations via video link on Friday, Wang offered a series of suggestions that he said would improve bilateral relations between the two nations. He called on the US to seek peaceful coexistence with Beijing and accept that China has chosen an independent path and system. 

“Democracy is not Coca-Cola, which, with the syrup produced by the United States, tastes the same across the world. The world will be lifeless and dull if there is only one single model and one single civilization,” the senior Chinese diplomat noted. 

He said that it was wrong to describe China as “authoritarian” because the country’s democracy “takes a different form than that of the United States.” At the same time, Washington should refrain from using democracy and human rights as a pretext to meddle in other countries' internal affairs or provoke a confrontation that can lead to “turmoil or disaster,” Wang said. 

The foreign minister accused the former US administration under Donald Trump of “disrupting the international system” and walking away from Washington’s global obligations and responsibilities. He said that Beijing welcomes the Joe Biden administration’s “return to multilateralism.”

HJ/PR