HONG KONG -- The United States is damaging democracy at home and aboard, and the upcoming summit is the very symptom of what is so terribly wrong with American democracy, according to a recent opinion piece by the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

If there is indeed a backsliding in the global advance of democracy, the U.S. is more responsible for it, and democracy itself is backsliding in the United States and the country is no model to anyone, said the article titled "The sick man of democracy hosts a democracy summit."

"The vast majority of U.S. allies and aligned nations experienced no democratic improvement in the past decade, though many non-allies did," the article said, noting that the summit "sounds more like a ganging up."

The United States has seen the militarization of police forces, a corrupt and brutal prison system, systemic racism, and disenfranchisement of minorities, especially blacks, said the article. "Voting rights have been curtailed and the courts are politicized with appointed judges, from lower courts all the way to the Supreme Court."

If democracy needs improvement or to be shored up, there is much work to be done at home rather than abroad for the United States.

"'Democracy' has been the fig leaf for the U.S. to advance and maintain its global hegemony," said the SCMP article.