China’s state-run Global Times was very taken this week with formerly Republican representative Justin Amash’s (I-MI) diagnosis of American politics as sinking into a “partisan death spiral.”

Quoting Amash and left-wing U.S. publications such as the New York Times, the Chinese Communist Party paper declared that the “glory days” of American democracy are over.

The Global Times greatly enjoyed the throwdown between President Donald Trump and the four-woman “squad” of extremist Democrats this week, saying:

The House voted Tuesday to pass a resolution to condemn US President Donald Trump’s xenophobic remarks on four non-white Democratic lawmakers and hostile language toward immigrants. After a bitter partisan debate, the resolution was approved by all Democratic members and only four Republicans. The New York Times called it “muted criticism” from the Republican Party while putting it bluntly that Republicans rarely criticize the president directly, because “it’s Trump’s Party.” The trend in US politics is getting quite obvious by now – loyalty to party is more important than serving the country or people. This is the biggest political correctness for both the Republican and Democratic parties today. Bipartisanship, which used to help the two major opposing parties realize a balance to achieve common goals and reduce failures in policy, is now becoming a stumbling block to even approve policies that can be supported by both sides. For quite some time, the two parties seem to have exercised no restraint in blocking each other, which has caused numerous stalemates on issues, including the budget, taxation, social security, immigrants and the environment. Some say it is because US society is divided. This is nothing more than a far-fetched excuse, because the country could have bridged the gap in society through bipartisanship by choosing optimal policies. Instead, the two major US parties are using the social rifts to promote their own party’s philosophy, or worse, for personal interests.

The Global Times saw these partisan divisions as proof the American system is inferior to China’s one-party autocracy – which would be bad news for the “Squad,” since under China’s system they would all currently be languishing in prison on nebulous charges of “corruption” or enjoying a few years of vigorous “vocational education” at a facility they were not permitted to leave. The paper continued, saying:

Americans used to treat their political system as a genesis mythology, which brought the country glory days for a long period of time. They worship their system and believe everyone else should learn from the US. US politicians have also been advertising the superiority of their political system across the globe. They believe such superiority is the most crucial reason to have made the US the greatest nation as it was in the world and are therefore intoxicated with it – until now, when political polarization breaks the fairy tale and drags the US downhill. James Wilson, a renowned US social scientist, once wrote, “America cannot be defeated on the battlefield, but it can be defeated at home. Polarization is a force that can defeat us.” Be it Wilson or Amash, a growing number of US politicians have woken up to the hard truth – a cancer is growing in their previously all-mighty political system. Yet the problem is, they have no idea where the system will lead them and how they can fix it. And the US is declining exactly from this point.

The “death spiral” prognosis remains highly premature. American politics has been highly polarized for quite a while, and it always seems to be the worst it has ever been. A relatively small number of Americans in Washington and the media are consumed with partisan bitterness, and while that number grew much larger with the advent of social media, most Americans continue living and productively working together. That is one reason the trade war has not gone as China and U.S. media “experts” expected.

The Global Times gets one thing right: the sense of U.S. national identity is definitely under attack and its unifying “mythology” has been downgraded to a “fairy tale.” The people eager to complete this process will remain untroubled by the sound of applause from the Chinese Communists ringing in their ears.