'US foreign policy outdated, irrational'

China has fired yet another salvo at the United States, criticising the Bush administration's "outdated" and "irrational" foreign policies and urged Washington to undertake a profound self-examination to win the hearts and minds of the international community.

"If the United States wants to regain respect from the world people, it must make profound self-examination, abandon the long outdated diplomacy characterized by power politics and hegemony, the only way for a solution to the problem is for it to implement a more democratic foreign policy that conforms to the international tide," said a stinging article in the People's Daily.

"Otherwise, it would be as futile as catching fish in a tree--doing the impossible," the article in the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece said.

The highly critical article is the second to appear on the eve of the US presidential polls. Yesterday, former Chinese vice premier and foreign minister Qian Qichen had penned an article lambasting the Bush administration's quest to rule the world, drawing sharp reactions from US officials.

The People's Daily article points out that Washington's attempts to change its international image since the September 11 attacks has "completely failed."

Listing out a slew of diplomatic and public relations activities undertaken by the US government since September 11 attacks, the article says that America's attempts to reverse its image has not yielded the anticipated results.

"Over the past three years, the United States has spared no effort to wrap its "international image" in almost all its diplomatic activities, but it has failed to clearly see the poor quality of its wrapped products," the article said.

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"As a matter of fact, the cause of US' poor international image does not lie in its ineffective public diplomacy, but rather it lies in the irrationality of US foreign policy. Public diplomacy is not omnipotent, it cannot change the awfully bad policy into a good one," it said.

The main reason for the emergence of this situation should be ascribed to America's ill-timed foreign policy, the article said while alleging that over a period of 10-odd years after the end of the Cold War, the United States has conducted over 20 external interference activities under various pretexts.

US military action against Iraq and the series of allegations on US troops have also greatly hurt US international image, it said.