Strange narratives have long emerged from the United States. I recall, when growing up in the 1950s in Australia, reading reprinted American stories describing how kangaroos bounded up and down Bourke Street in the middle of Melbourne on a daily basis. This tradition of fantastical writing about far-off places continues — and it can be readily adapted to justify taking hostile measures against those the US finds will not do its geopolitical bidding.

As it happens, Washington has just been whipping up another anti-Hong Kong stir-fry in its battered congressional wok. This time, the House Foreign Affairs Committee has voted in favor of what they call the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) Certification Act, which will, if it passes into law, limit the operational standing of Hong Kong’s three US-based economic and trade offices (ETOs), and could lead to their closing. 

This is an exceptionally dumb idea. Despite all of Washington’s shabby provocation, meddling in, and bullying of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region over the last several years, trade has still thrived, delivering extensive benefits to American companies operating through Hong Kong and the US generally. The ETOs play a significant role in maintaining this excellent trading relationship, which delivered a trade surplus in favor of the US of almost $22 billion in 2022, according to the US Trade Representative Office.

It is useful to remember that the US has a track record with respect to waging wars on things rather than places. Readers will recall the war on drugs and the war on terrorism. Of course, as former US president Jimmy Carter reminded us in 2019, the US has lapped the world several times over when it comes to waging war on places. He noted, then, that America is “the most warlike nation in the history of the world”. 

This propensity to go to war so readily is now, believe it or not, steadily manifesting itself as a new war on capitalism. The British weekly, The Economist, tiptoes around using a term like the war on capitalism — but its commentaries over the last year essentially message this concern. In October, that prominent journal wondered anxiously in an editorial whether free markets were history. The latest burst of feverish, Washington lawmaking, targeting the ETOs, thus fits smoothly into this wider, reckless, globally damaging US project.

But the next aspect of what the House Committee has done relates to why it should have taken this step in the first place. The committee malevolently stressed that they are reacting to the claimed reduction in human rights protections in Hong Kong. This was the same sort of warped justification used to support the enactment of earlier US legislation designed to harass Hong Kong.

Now let us consider who is delivering this badgering lecture on human rights with its sanctimonious legislative backup. 

Strange narratives have long emerged from the United States. …This tradition of fantastical writing about far-off places continues — and it can be readily adapted to justify taking hostile measures against those the US finds will not do its geopolitical bidding

Israel has launched a homicidal revenge and cleansing attack on Gaza, following the brutal Hamas attack on southern Israel in October. Leading commentators worldwide, including from the UN, have told us repeatedly that this Israeli response presents a clear case of genocide. 

Yet US President Joe Biden lost almost no time in taking himself to Israel to give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a brazen, public buddy-hug as he reassured him that Washington was more committed than ever to supporting Israel, without reservation. Naturally, the US has opposed any serious moves within the UN Security Council to call for an unconditional ceasefire, to bring a halt to the egregious Israeli slaughter of Palestinians, mostly women and children, trapped in Gaza. 

Some 15,000 Palestinians, including 6,000 children and 4,000 women, have been killed since Oct 7 and around 30,000 have been wounded and 6,000 are missing according to the distinguished American journalist and commentator, Chris Hedges. His latest report on Gaza follows Israel’s renewed, deadly attack on that wretched open-air prison camp. It carries the hauntingly apt headline: Israel Reopens the Gaza Slaughterhouse.

Once again, the US, and the Global West in general, have either refreshed their support for Israel’s “right to defend itself” or said nothing. Here’s the nub of what the world is witnessing: Any shred of the remaining claims by Washington to be the leader of the global human rights project are being cremated in Gaza – again and again. The Economist recently argued that Russia is “helping turn the Global South against America”. The truth is that America needs no help from Russia’s President Vladimir Putin — it is achieving this, spectacularly and terribly, all by itself.

The Wall Street Journal lately reported that the US has sent Israel over 15,000 bombs, including large bunker-buster bombs, and more than 57,000 artillery shells since Oct 7. What possible standing does the US retain to lecture the Hong Kong SAR and China today on claimed human rights breaches and to enact hostile laws as a follow-up? The answer is none whatsoever.

The author is an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Law, Hong Kong University.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.