Xinhua Commentary: Washington's brazen readiness to assault international law

BEIJING, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro appeared in Manhattan federal court on Monday after his forcible seizure by U.S. special forces on Venezuelan soil this weekend, marking the latest development in Washington's public assault on international law and national sovereignty.

Kidnapping the head of state of a sovereign country and putting him in a foreign court for a so-called trial has nothing to do with law enforcement; it is simply a naked show of America's readiness to wield its raw power.

Washington's brazen military operation against Venezuela sets a perilous precedent: that any nation with enough power can unilaterally impose its will on another, reducing the international order to a brutal contest of might.

In the real international system, no country can legitimately act as an international policeman, and no country can appoint itself as an international judge. International law recognizes no such role. The authority to enforce justice across borders rests with multilateral institutions, not with unilateral acts of coercion carried out at a time and place of one country's choosing.

In fact, Washington has self-torpedoed its claim of legality, voluntarily exposing its greed for natural resources. Shortly after its military operation against Venezuela, U.S. President Donald Trump publicly urged acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez to grant the United States "total access," especially to Venezuela's oil resources.

This blunt demand confirms what the world had long suspected: the operation was never about justice, but a brazen gambit for strategic control and economic plunder. The rhetoric of law enforcement is merely a cynical veneer for a policy of resource extraction and imperial domination.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. From repeated interventions in Latin America to military invasions of Middle East countries conducted without international authorization, unilateral use of force has been a familiar instrument of U.S. foreign doctrine, routinely employed by U.S. policy-makers as a matter of course.

The world does not need an international policeman -- least of all one that treats justice as expendable. What the world truly needs are responsible members of the international community -- nations that respect sovereignty, abide by international law, and pursue accountability through multilateral means.

The collective security and the legitimate rights of all nations, big or small, must be safeguarded based on the international law, not the law of the jungle. ■