People’s Daily (overseas edition) published a commentary article in which it gloated that the United States has become a “paper tiger.” During the era of the first Chinese Communist leader, Mao Zedong, this name was once a household slogan: “The American imperialist is a paper tiger.”
The article quoted one [U.S.] Republican senator’s words, “Before the world, the United States has behaved like a paper tiger." The commentary said that this expressed a lot of people’s feelings. The article further commented that many critics had other names for this "paper tiger," such as “an ass in a lion’s skin” [one of Aesop’s Fables], or “untrustworthy.”
The article ascribed the American demise to its predestined fate. It said that America, in a world developing toward a multipolar direction, is in an era of in which its power is in relative decline and Obama is destined to live with criticism. “Perhaps Obama can only lament that he was not born at the right time." … “Who would not want to have the prestige of ‘the carrot and the stick?’ Now, however, the United States has been stretched beyond its capability. At such a moment, [who says] being ‘prudent’ and even ‘weak’ does not require courage?”
The article didn’t spare words in blaming Obama, “Of course, for the United States to become a ‘paper tiger,’ in addition to objective factors, Obama is not without responsibility. Who allowed him to, on occasion, not control his impulse before the world to draw a ‘red line’ and then hopelessly watch the red line become a pink line, and then turn white [pale] — a lie showing it was impossible for him to keep his promise? After stumbling over the ‘red line’ on Syria’s chemical weapons, he could not resist the temptation again in the Crimea issue. Consequently, the ‘paper tiger’ image is starting to become ‘deeply rooted in people’s hearts.’”
Source: People’s Daily (oversea edition), July 17, 2014 http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/html/2014-07/17/content_1453746.htm http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2014-07/17/c_126762638.htm