The issue of US biological laboratories in Ukraine continues to develop.

Research on coronaviruses in bats, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever and hantavirus are conducted in these labs, according to the Russian side, which also revealed that the outbreaks of the viruses can be covered up as natural ones. Previously, the World Health Organization had suggested destroying these high-threat pathogens.

In the face of the proof, the American side has kept on obfuscating and has made contradictory statements. The US Department of State has denied the existence of any chemical or biological laboratories in Ukraine in a press release, while public information from the US Department of Defense shows that there are 46 biological laboratories, and a document the US submitted to the Conference of the States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) shows that there are 26. US Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland admitted that these labs are very dangerous, and voiced concern that the Russian side may be seeking to gain control of them. Asserting that it has complied with the BWC, the US has been standing alone in opposing setting up multilateral verification mechanisms.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson said the Pentagon's Ukraine bio-lab talking points are an utter lie. But for the US, an American-built “empire of lies,” it is merely the tip of the iceberg.

There is no lie that the Americans cannot make up themselves for the sake of US hegemony over the world. The world will not forget that the then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell held up a vial of white powder as evidence of "weapons of mass destruction" developed in Iraq during his presentation at the United Nations Security Council before the US launched military strikes against the country. People still remember that the US, the U.K. and France launched over 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles in Syria, claiming that Syria used chemical weapons against its own people. The US has been bragging both at home and abroad about its successes in intervening in Afghanistan over the past 20 years or so. But the whole world has seen that none of its goals, such as building a democratic Afghanistan, had been realized by the time it withdrew from the country. It left behind a country devastated by wars, 3.5 million displaced refugees, and two Afghans who fell to their deaths from a US military transport aircraft.

“Concealment, deception and outright lies have characterized national security policy for decades,” said Gordon Adams, Professor Emeritus of International Relations at American University’s School of International Service on a news website. It is another proof of the CIA-like approach of “we lied, we cheated, we stole,” as boasted by former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The US launched over 200 armed conflicts over the past seven decades. Such moves were assisted by the “empire of lies” built by the West.

The pure hypocrisy and double standard of the West has been exposed during the Ukraine crisis. Time magazine has come out with two covers, with one being “The Agony of Ukraine,” conveying compassion for the weak and reflections on war. But the cover of the magazine in 1999 when NATO dropped cluster bombs in Serbia, then a part of Yugoslavia, was “Bringing the Serbs to heel, a massive bombing attack opens the door to peace.”

During a football game in Serbia on March 17, Serbian football fans raised huge banners listing US-led interventions in over 20 countries and regions such as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Vietnam, Panama, and Syria, with one of the banners reading “All we are saying is give peace a chance." But the self-proclaimed peace-loving media of the West remained silent.

So here is the question, are the Western media outlets, under the guise of press freedom, really the defenders of justice, or just the mouthpieces of money politics?

In the face of the Ukraine crisis, values that the Western world has always cherished such as “freedom of speech,” like “art knows no borders” for instance, no longer work. Performances of the famous Russian soprano Anna Netrebko have been cancelled as she refused to publicly express her political position. The Western world has launched a series of sanctions on Russia, even on Russian cats, dogs, and the classic ballet piece “Swan Lake” by Pyotr Tchaikovsky who died over 100 years ago.

According to the American Psychological Association, a “big lie” refers to a propaganda device in which a false statement of extreme magnitude is constantly repeated to persuade the public, which helps a ruler to seize or maintain his power. As a systematic power, the US is exactly an “empire of lies,” supported by its obedient satellite states.

It is high time that those cheated by American lies asked the US a question: Do I live inside the Truman Show?