This article**[CCTV News Client];
In 2023, social problems in the United States will continue to emerge, with stubborn social diseases such as gun violence falling into a dead cycle, and "new diseases" such as the derailment of the "poison train" and the Maui fire, all of which ultimately point to the same political polarization and bipartisan disputes.
On February 3, 2023, a train derailment in Ohio, USA, caused the spread of toxic gases.
Former Ohio Fire Chief Silverio Cajano: We did a "nuclear blast" on this town with chemicals, and that's what they did.
CCTV reporter Liu Xu: On February 3, 2023, at the beginning of the new year, a shocking "poison train" derailment occurred in East Palestine, Ohio, USA. At the end of the year, we came back here, 10 months after the incident, and you can see that behind me, the chemical residue garbage at the incident site is still not completely completed, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency** is still updating the cleanup situation every week. The investigation into the cause of the incident, as well as the local people's lawsuit against the railway company and the United States**, is also slowly underway.
As a short-term consequence, many residents in this area of 4,700 who have returned home have been experiencing obvious symptoms such as coughs, headaches, rashes, and tracheitis caused by exposure to the air, water, and soil affected by chemicals.
Diana Smith, East Palestine, Ohio: I've had a lot of symptoms, including headaches, a dry throat, and a runny nose all the time, and my eyes have been watery with tears, and my eyes have a burning sensation and itchy.
CCTV reporter Liu Xu: Just like the local river in East Palestine around me, time passes and passes like flowing water, and the derailment accident gradually fades out of people's vision. But these chemicals have seeped into the ground, poisoning the local environment and residents like a chronic disease. To this day, the bill for stricter safety checks on chemical train operations has been shelved in the Senate because of bipartisan disagreements.
On August 8, 2023, a fire broke out in Maui, Hawaii, killing 100 people.
Yervi, Lahaina Victim: The whole of Lahaina was scorched, like the end of the world.
CCTV reporter Liu Xu: Four months have passed, and we have found that the complete Lahaina closure has now been lifted, so we are allowed to enter the Lahaina area for visits. But I was only allowed to come to the checkpoint behind me.
As you can see from the footage, all the houses in the center of Lahaina, the worst-hit town, were almost completely burned down. Since mid-December local time, the hardest-hit areas, about 100 meters behind me, have been opened to the local people one after another.
The current focus of the follow-up to the fire is on the construction of some low-cost temporary housing in the area around Lahaina, and works like this are underway behind me. And the relatively complete reconstruction plan for the entire Lahaina region is still very far away. There has been no clear progress in investigating the cause of the fire accident. Local ** also reported that many local ** people were also extremely uncooperative with the investigation.
This fire, which was recognized by the United States as the worst fire in American history since 1918, exposed many problems in social governance at all levels in the United States. Fire alarm system failure, aging power facilities, insufficient water for firefighting, etc. In our interviews, many people affected by the disaster are disappointed and tired of the attitude of shirking responsibility at all levels, and the Democratic and Republican parties have emerged in an endless stream in order to maintain their political positions, but they often avoid the important and trivialize the practical issues related to the safety of people's lives and property, and gradually lose the trust of the people.
After looking at these two "new diseases" that have broken out this year because of various hidden dangers, let's talk about the old social disease that has become a dead knot in the United States - gun violence. This year, the number of large-scale cases in the United States has reached 650, which is the fourth consecutive year that the number of large-scale cases in the United States has exceeded 600.
USA** Biden: It's pathological, it's tearing apart our society, it's tearing the soul of America.
CCTV reporter Liu Xu: The United States has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world, with an average of more than one gun per person. Whenever there is a large-scale case, it is often accompanied by a large increase in the number of people, and people who have no sense of security turn to seek the so-called sense of security. Although the White House has lowered its flag at half-mast again and again, and politicians have shouted the slogan of gun control year after year, the strict gun control bill on Capitol Hill has not been released for a long time. Fallen human lives can't move hard-hearted interest groups;The frequent gunshots could not wake up the American politicians who were pretending to be asleep.
Farce is frequent, and the "filter" of American-style democracy is shattered.
Political polarization is arguably one of the most striking features of American politics today. In 2023, the logic of confrontation and the intensification of partisan strife inherent in the American-style democratic system will further penetrate into all aspects of the political and social fabric. And this time, in addition to the old raw materials of the "two-party dispute", the "infighting" within the Republican Party has become a new recipe.
CCTV reporter Xu Tao: The U.S. Capitol behind me is known as a symbol of American politics and has been the seat of the U.S. Congress since 1800. Members of Congress gather here to make laws, and the United States** is here to take the oath of office and deliver its annual State of the Union address. But today's Capitol Hill has long since become a place where "American-style farce" is frequently staged. The Capitol Hill riot nearly three years ago paralyzed the US Congress, and this year the US Congress has also been paralyzed several times, but this time it was the lawmakers themselves who "did it."
USA** Biden: It's embarrassing for the whole country, it's embarrassing that Congress can't work properly.
A scene that even Biden bluntly said he couldn't stand happened at the beginning of this year. The Republican Party has regained control of the House of Representatives after four years, but it has fallen into infighting. McCarthy, the leader of the Republican Party, that is, the majority party, was "run away" by the party, and after three rounds of voting, he was still elected speaker of the House of Representatives. American-style democracy has really experienced a rare embarrassment in a century. In the end, McCarthy survived *** voting to get his wish.
CCTV reporter Xu Tao: After the voting results came out, McCarthy stood here and said "I'm glad this is over", but what he didn't expect was that this election result would instead become the beginning of the Republican Party's "infighting" to a climax.
U.S. Congressman Matt Gates, Republican: I'm going to introduce a motion on House privileges to declare the Speaker vacant in the House of Representatives.
U.S. House of Representatives, Republican Steve Wommack: 216 votes in favor, 210 against, the resolution passed.
It took only one day from the filing of the recall motion to its passage. McCarthy, who "went through hardships" to take office at the beginning of the year, was quickly ousted nine months later, making history again.
During the House Speaker election at the beginning of the year, McCarthy made concessions in order to win the support of ultra-conservatives in the party, agreeing to reduce the number of members required to move the speaker to remove him to one. As a result, when ultra-conservatives were dissatisfied with McCarthy's concession to the Democratic Party on the issue of the short-term appropriations bill, they offered a "big move" to recall, and even resolutely "stabbed in the back" when voting.
With the removal of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the House of Representatives of the US Congress was paralyzed. This paralysis lasted for three weeks, during which there was also a farce of Republican Party strife and the three candidates who were selected "overturned" one after another.
CCTV reporter Xu Tao: Whether it is McCarthy's marathon-style vote in January this year, or his ouster after being "backlashed" by the party, or the farce of "difficult birth" in the subsequent election of the speaker, it has undoubtedly exposed the increasingly obvious ** of the two parties and even the party in the United States. The chaotic partisanship and policy operation have not only led to the failure of the US fiscal year 2024 appropriations bill to be passed so far, making the United States face a shutdown crisis several times this year, but also seriously affecting the US foreign policy, and the issue of aid to Israel and Ukraine has been unresolved.
The issue of aid packages for Israel and Ukraine has sparked heated debates in Congress, from the amount of aid to how it will be distributed. Allies are beginning to worry about America's reliability in international affairs. And American people's disillusionment with politics is also rising. According to a recent poll released by Reuters and Ipsos, two-thirds of Americans believe that politicians from both parties are too obsessed with partisanship to perform their duties. According to an article in the New York Times**, only 6 percent of Americans had a negative view of both parties in 1994, but now that percentage stands at 28 percent.
CCTV reporter Xu Tao: In the past year, the United States has frequently set historical records and constantly refreshed the political "lower limit". As the first Speaker of the House to be voted out, McCarthy openly mocked himself for "making history";Trump has been charged with allegedly mishandling classified documents, among other things, becoming the first former in U.S. history to be criminally indicted. Partisan infighting, the threat of a shutdown, and the endless debate over foreign aid have all seemed to shatter the filter of American-style democracy in the midst of this unprecedented series of chaos.
Washington's political imbalance and dysfunction American society is out of control.
In 2023, why is there frequent social chaos in the United States, and new diseases are added before the old diseases are cured?Why is the political polarization in the United States becoming more and more serious, from the two parties pinching each other to the internal struggle within the party?Let's take a look at the interpretation of experts on American issues.
Diao Daming, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Renmin University of Chinese: The United States we see in 2023 is actually an America where partisan polarization continues to intensify, political decay and failure continue to deteriorate.
The dysplasia of the speaker of the House of Representatives shows us that in fact, not only have there been more difficulties in the sense of party politics in the United States, but also that this dilemma itself has obviously extended to the institutional level, resulting in the entire political system and political institutions in the United States being unable to operate effectively and respond to public opinion. Under these circumstances, we have also seen that there has been an obvious situation of bitter partisanship and bitter struggle in some major foreign policy of the United States. For example, the issue of aid to Ukraine, which has been bipartisan for some time.
In some major foreign policy areas, it is difficult for the United States to advance relevant policy decisions from a more macro perspective and from the perspective of a country's interests. The positioning of the two parties in the interests of the state has completely degenerated into a state of maximizing the special interests represented by the two parties behind them or striving for the maximization of the two parties.
Diao Daming, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Renmin University of Chinese: At the same time, we also see more chaos at the American social level in 2023.
Behind the Ohio poison train incident, in fact, some special interests are constantly eating away at some of the regulations that should have been carried out in this country. The wildfires in Hawaii are a clear reflection of the disharmony between the various levels**. It's not just the Ohio poison train that is completely derailed, it's the American state that is completely derailed;It is not only the wildfires that are completely out of control, but the special self-interests represented by these parties in the United States.
So what we're seeing in 2023 is the imbalance and disability of Washington, USA. It is precisely this imbalance and dysfunction of the Washington elite that has led to this disorder and loss of control in American society.