US' obsessive compulsion to play lead role

Editor's note: In the eyes of some US politicians, there can be only one leading actor on the world stage. How the plot develops depends on what it says, because it desires to be in charge of writing the script. Zhong Sheng, a columnist for People's Daily, comments:

Some politicians in Washington talk about fair competition, but they essentially try to suppress foreign companies in the name of "national security". They trumpet "free, fair and reciprocal trade", but in fact do whatever they can to bypass multilateral mechanisms and exert unilateral pressure on other countries. They claim other countries are "not abiding by the rules" while putting US rules above international rules.

There are too many examples of the United States not abiding by the commitments it made, from its withdrawal from UNESCO and the UN Human Rights Council to its exit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, the Paris agreement on climate change and the multiparty deal on Iran's nuclear issue.