America’s Coercive Diplomacy and Its Harm

China’s Xinhua News Agency released a report last week detailing the “dark history” of the United States’ coercive diplomacy that caused huge suffering for the world, especially developing nations. Following is the full text:

Contents Introduction I. The United States’ coercive diplomacy has a notorious record

II. The United States has many means of coercive diplomacy

III. The United States’ coercive diplomacy endangers the whole world

Conclusion

Introduction

The United States is used to accusing other countries of using great power status, coercive policies and economic coercion to coerce other countries to obey and engage in coercive diplomacy, but in fact, the US is the instigator of coercive diplomacy. The invention rights, patent rights and intellectual property rights of coercive diplomacy all belong to the US. For a long time, the US has done everything possible to coerce other countries, and the country has a very disgraceful “dark history” in coercive diplomacy. Today, coercive diplomacy is a standard instrument in the US foreign policy toolbox, and containment and suppression in political, economic, military, cultural and other fields have been used to conduct coercive diplomacy around the world for pure US self-interest. Countries around the world have suffered, with developing countries bearing the brunt of it, and even US’ allies and partners have not been spared.

Based on abundant facts and data, this report aims to expose the evil deeds of US coercive diplomacy in the world and make the international community better understand the hegemonic and bullying nature of US diplomacy, and the serious damages caused by US actions to the development of all countries, regional stability and world peace.

I. The United States’ coercive diplomacy has a notorious record

— In 1971, Alexander George, a professor at Stanford University, first put forward the concept of “coercive diplomacy,” which was used to summarize the policies of the United States on Laos, Cuba and Vietnam. In his view, coercive diplomacy concerns the use of threat or limited force to coerce an adversary to stop or reverse its action. In the past halfcentury, the US has never stopped engaging in coercive diplomacy in spite of great changes in the international structure. From economic sanctions to technical blockade, and from political isolation to threat of force, the US has demonstrated what coercive diplomacy is to the world with its own actions.

— The developing countries are the “worst-hit areas” of America’s coercive diplomacy. In 1962, the US imposed an economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba which continues to this day. The US-Cuba diplomatic relations were restored in 2015, but the US did not fully lift its blockade against Cuba. In 2017, the Trump administration tightened sanctions on Cuba again. In 2021, the Biden administration twice extended the “Trading with the Enemy Act,” which has served as the legal basis for the blockade and embargo against Cuba. The 61-year-old embargo has brought enormous economic losses and grave humanitarian disasters to Cuba. The US sanctions and blockade on Cuba cover almost everything from fuel, food and daily necessities to medicine, leaving the island facing a chronic and severe shortage of supplies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the US also blocked Cuba’s access to raw materials for vaccine production. The People’s World, an American news website, pointed out in an article that the blockade imposed by the US had prevented Cuba from obtaining materials for the manufacture of syringes in time. Since the US has banned third countries from selling ventilators to Cuba, Cuba has not been able to purchase the ventilators needed to save critically ill COVID-19 patients, which has caused great harm to the Cuban people.

— Since 2006, the US has imposed sanctions on Venezuela, preventing Venezuela from entering the US financial system. During the Trump administration, the US expanded economic and financial sanctions against Venezuela, froze all assets of the Venezuelan government in the US, and imposed sanctions on its oil, banking, mining industries and more than 140 government personnel, which severely hit the Venezuelan economy. Venezuelan crude oil production fell from nearly 2.5 million barrels per day in 2016 to just 300,000 barrels per day in 2020. During the COVID-19 pandemic, US sanctions made it difficult for Venezuela to obtain materials to combat the pandemic and basic commodities such as food, drinking water and gasoline in a timely manner. According to the report released by the UN Special Rapporteur Du Han on the Negative Effects of Unilateral Enforcement Measures on Human Rights, the sanctions have left more than one-third of the population of Venezuela in a serious food crisis and a shortage of basic medical supplies and equipment; conditions of health care services have deteriorated and maternal, infant and seriously ill patients deaths have increased. In June 2020, the US Treasury Department announced the imposition of penalties on three Mexican entrepreneurs and eight Mexican companies, freezing their US assets, for allegedly helping Venezuela evade US sanctions, and prohibiting them from participating in any transaction involving US individuals and entities.

— Since 2006, successive US administrations have continuously strengthened sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Since 1988, the US has for many years included the DPRK in the list of “state sponsors of terrorism.” In 2016, then president Barack

Obama signed the “North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act” to supplement the sanctions already imposed by past administrations. In 2017, the US imposed further sanctions on the DPRK through the “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act” and demanded that SWIFT cut off the DPRK banks from their global banking network. The US sanctions on the DPRK include restrictions on trade imports and exports, prohibition on the DPRK citizens from working overseas, freezing of assets in the US, and prohibition on economic ties with the DPRK. In November of the same year, three aircraft carriers of the US Navy, including USS Reagan, USS Roosevelt and USS Nimitz, appeared in the East China Sea at the same time and jointly held high-intensity military exercises with the Republic of Korean Navy, which attracted great attention from the outside world.

— Twice kicking Iran out of the SWIFT system and disrupting the international financial order. The US first imposed economic sanctions against Iran in 1979, when it froze $1.2 billion worth of Iranian assets abroad and eventually expanding to a full trade embargo. As the Iranian nuclear issue has evolved, the US has banned Iranian financial institutions from using the US clearing and payment system to settle transactions in US dollars, forcing Iran to decouple from the US dollar. In 2012, in order to contain Iran in an all-round way, the US and the European Union removed Iran from the SWIFT system, making it