BEIJING, July 15. /TASS/. American politicians are nurturing hatred in US society, which is fraught with outbursts of extreme violence in the near future, a Chinese expert told TASS.
"If they don’t think hard how to reach social reconciliation, reconciliation between political parties, there is a risk that such extreme violence will be a frequent phenomenon in the United States’ political life," Qian Feng, expert of the National Strategic Institute of Tsinghua University and senior researcher at the Taihe Institute, said, commenting on the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump.
He noted that both Republicans and Democrats constantly speculate about racial and ideological issues in a bid to win more votes. At the same time, they tend to ignore social contradictions.
"They have plunged into a state of extreme antagonism and polarization and ordinary people have polar views on a range of political problems," Qian said. "These problems have undermined the basis of American politics in general, playing up populism and the policy of hatred."
The Chinese expert noted that the motives behind the attempt on Trump’s life, which shocked the entire world, have not yet been identified but this "reveals the enhancement of polarization in the United States." The outburst of hatred and revenge threatens to escalate the situation ahead of the presidential election.
Dangerous precedents and undesired consequences
Qian recalled that there were quite a lot of murders of high-ranking politicians in the United States’ history and an outburst of violence is observed in the 21st century again. "We have to mourn the regress of America’s politics," he noted.
He noted that American society is torn by polarization and intolerance to political views that differ from one’s own. "A systemic crisis of the American political system is behind the frequent manifestations of violence in politics and serious fragmentation of social strata," he Chinese expert stressed.
The attempt on Trump’s life took place at his campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13. The former US president suffered a minor injury to his ear and is in stable condition. However, the shooting that targeted Trump killed one of his supporters. The attacker was eliminated by US Secret Service members charged with protecting the former president.