U.S. military hegemony tramples on other countries' sovereignty: report

BEIJING, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- A new report Xinhua News Agency's think tank released here on Tuesday reveals how the United States uses military hegemony to violate the principle of sovereignty.

In the report titled Origins, Facts and Perils of U.S. Military Hegemony, Xinhua Institute outlines the formation of the U.S. military hegemony, summarizes the means Washington adopted to maintain it, and delves into its perils by presenting facts and data.

"Since the Declaration of Independence in 1776, U.S. foreign military interventions through direct invasion by force have spread across the globe," said the report.

According to a Tufts University report, the United States undertook nearly 400 military interventions globally between 1776 and 2019, 34 percent of which were in Latin America and the Caribbean, 23 percent in East Asia and the Pacific, 14 percent in the Middle East and North Africa, and 13 percent in Europe and Central Asia.

Currently, U.S. military interventions in the Middle East and North Africa as well as sub-Saharan Africa are on the rise, the Tufts University report added.

In addition to direct military invasions, the United States has also subverted lawful governments, exercised extraterritorial jurisdiction, and violated the airspace and territorial waters of other countries, according to the report of Xinhua Institute.

From 1947 to 1989, the United States carried out 64 covert operations of subversion and six overt ones in other countries, regardless of whether they were enemies or allies, or what political system they had adopted, the Xinhua Institute report said, quoting in "Covert Regime Change: America's Secret Cold War," written by the Boston College political scientist Lindsey O'Rourke.

Following the end of the Cold War, the United States undertook subversive operations in several countries, including Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Venezuela, said the report.

"It is common for U.S. military personnel to violate the local laws of the countries in which they are stationed. However, the U.S. government has tried to avoid subjecting U.S. military personnel to the jurisdiction of local governments, causing serious violations of judicial sovereignty of the countries in which they are stationed," said the report.

The report mentioned that a South Korean media outlet reported in 2017 that the non-prosecution rate for crimes committed by U.S. military personnel stationed in South Korea stands at a whopping 70.7 percent and the figure for violent crimes, including murder, rape and robbery, is even higher at 81.3 percent.

"In order to preserve its freedom to conduct military deployment worldwide, the United States began implementing 'freedom of navigation' in 1979 to threaten and undermine the sovereignty of other nations' territorial waters," said the report.