U.S. never a good example of respecting int'l law -- scholar

The United States has never been a good example of upholding international law, with its demand for closing the Chinese Consulate General in Houston as another proof, Singaporean scholar Zheng Yongnian told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"While pretending to be the embodiment of the international law, it only demands other countries to abide by the international law," said Zheng, a professor of the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore.

For instance, the United States often cites the case of the so-called arbitration of the South China Sea against China, even though itself is not a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea yet, Zheng added.

On Tuesday, the United States abruptly demanded China close its Consulate General in Houston. Such a move is a "serious breach of international law and basic norms governing international relations as well as bilateral consular agreement," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a regular press conference.

The excuses behind the demand, such as the infringement of the property rights, don't have much to do with the foreign affairs between the two countries. Instead, they resemble those excuses the United States used to launch the trade war against China, which aim to "demonize China in an attempt to justify its hegemonic actions," Zheng said.

Commenting on a recent speech by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during which he maliciously attacked the Communist Party of China and China's social system, Zheng said this was a clear demonstration of a lack of basic knowledge about China and a sign of identity politics where people are divided according to their ideologies.

He pointed out that there are some politicians behind Pompeo in Washington who are engaged in ideological prejudice against China.

"Building a country's foreign policies upon the hatred of the few politicians is not sensible nor in accord with its national interests," Zheng said.

Besides the abrupt closure of the Chinese consulate general, some Chinese scholars and students in the United States are also unfairly treated.

The United States has largely revised its strategy towards China as it began to view the latter as the top competitor, and taken concrete steps to contain its rise.

However, aggression and invasion are not in the nature of the Chinese people, as manifested by the history of the Ming Dynasty hundreds of years ago, when China was the most powerful maritime nation in the world and forged friendly relations with other countries, Zheng added.

Unfortunately, this seems beyond understanding for the United States, he noted.

Considering that the United States is the world's largest developed nation while China is the largest developing one, maintaining a good relationship between the two big powers so as to prevent the world from falling into a bipolar scenario is beneficial not only to the citizens of both sides, but also to people worldwide, he concluded.