Obama's bullying remark shows 'arrogance and blindness' : experts
U.S. President Barack Obama criticized China and Russia again for bullying "small neighbors" while giving his farewell speech on Wednesday, but Chinese scholars said his criticism showed the U.S.' arrogance and blindness and Obama's unwillingness to admit the U.S.' ideological failure.
Obama said in the speech delivered in Chicago that the U.S.' "rivals like Russia or China cannot match our influence around the world - unless we give up what we stand for, and turn ourselves into just another big country that bullies smaller neighbors."
Reacting to the speech, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said on Wednesday that "Firstly, China's mentality is different from that of the U.S. When we talk about the relationship with the international community, we would like to talk about what contribution and public goods we provide to others rather than the influence over others."
"Secondly, if we have to talk about influence, in our logic, a country's influence in the world should be evaluated by the members of the international community, not the country itself."
"Obama's criticism, first of all, doesn't accord to facts," Jin Canrong, associate dean of the Department of International Studies at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
"For instance, in Syria crisis, Russia's influence has already surpassed that of the U.S., and now the regional powers like Turkey and Iran are willing to negotiate with Russia on postwar affairs, and the U.S. is not on the table," Jin said.
On the South China Sea issue, there was no tension before the U.S. got involved, and even if there were some disputes between China and other countries, these disputes were under control and didn't impact the normal economic exchanges, Jin stressed.
Now the U.S. is losing influence in many regions, and many developing countries have realized that the U.S. ideology won't work for them and sometimes will even bring chaos, said Chu Yin, an associate professor from the University of International Relations.
"By criticizing China and Russia, Obama indicated his unwillingness to face the U.S. ideological failure."
Obama's speech clearly showed that he left three challenges - economy, racial conflicts and divided society - for the U.S. democracy, which Trump would also find difficult to tackle, said Diao Daming, a research fellow with the Department of Russia-Eastern Europe-Central Asia Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Although Obama said he would ensure a smooth transition of power, given Trump's negative attitude to Obama's legacies such as TPP, Obamacare and Iran nuke deal, the transition is very unlikely to be smooth, Jin added.
