The US' declining governing capacity has become more widely known in recent years. The extent of the decline has been repeatedly unimaginably shocking the world.

According to media reports, the US state of Rhode Island plans to create supervised spaces for users to inject illegal drugs. There, trained personnel can administer the antidote naloxone to prevent overdose deaths. Besides, such injection sites also provide an access point to other services that can help prevent harm to users, such as housing, medical care and treatment. The sites are seen as a test of harm reduction over criminalization.

Such an approach to deal with the illegal drug use is putting the cart before the horse. It may even end up backfiring. It is providing, with taxpayers' money, a secured shelter for drug users to enjoy the drugs without any concerns. This is somewhat encouraging illegal drug use, and even helping spread it. This is a symptom of the US' overreach of liberalization, which is damaging.

Rhode Island State Rep. Edith Ajello, a Democrat, said the death of her best friend's son to an overdose during the pandemic helped convince her that safe-use sites would help prevent deaths across the state. She believed such sites can help to cut these losses. That's a really sounding way to say it.

However, the remarks are tantamount to a tacit admission that the US government is not able to handle the illegal drug problem. It instead concocts makeshift policies. If the US government really means to act in a responsible way, it should comprehensively prohibit the use of illegal drugs. It should empower the police to crack down on drug crimes, and put an end to the nationwide use of illegal drugs. But the government has chosen to give up its efforts.

Some cities have attempted to legalize supervised-injection sites, including Philadelphia. In fact, one was blocked from opening under a legal challenge from the Trump administration, according to a Wall Street Journal report. But after Joe President Biden took office, promoting harm reduction efforts is now one of the priorities of the drug control policy.

The change of drug policy priority under different ruling parties shows that as US partisanship becomes increasingly fierce, its policies are gradually beginning to run out of bounds. This is becoming a trend. Some conservative states that are pro-Republicans prefer criminalization of illegal drugs. But in states such as California and New York, which are bases for Democrats, drug control policies are relatively loose. For example, the New York Police Department has directed officers to let drug addicts freely shoot up on city streets, and even let them share needles.

As the world's greatest power, the US is now presenting itself as a collapsing society. Its bad moves have set a horrible example for other countries. The US is the world's largest consumer of drugs. It is Washington's poor governance and lack of anti-drug efforts that have led to widespread drug abuse. As a result, the US public suffers. In addition, a large, profitable drug supply chain has been created, making global drug production and distribution more difficult to control.

There is no doubt that widespread drug issues can deeply harm a society. This is the bitter anguish that China has experienced before. In history, China was tormented by opium. This resulted in financial damage and the decline of both China's national power and people's health. China then was bullied by countries for more than a century. Therefore, since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the government has been exercising a policy of zero tolerance against drugs. This is how it shows responsibility to the people.

From this perspective, the different attitude toward drugs also indicates the gap in the governing philosophy and capacity between the Chinese and US governments. Combating drug-related crime requires huge governance efforts and investment. But this is being truly accountable to the people and putting them first, rather than ignoring them to pursue short-term political gains. Washington's approach may appear to be justified. It may protect the interests of a small group of drug users in the short run. But in the end, it will cause a major disaster of widespread drug issues that hurt more people.

So on the level of national governance, it is necessary to overcome the short-sightedness and narrow-mindedness. We must think long term, and put the well-being of all people at the first place of governance. In this regard, the US is obviously far behind China.

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