American exceptionalism and scapegoating China normalize racism and teach acceptance of anti-China policies and discrimination

[Tobita, “How China threat narratives feed anti-Asian racism and how to fight back” Justice is Global, July 3, 2021, https://peoplesaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/JIG_AntiAsianRacismReport_2021_0608.pdf, Accessed 7.21.24 GDI-HB]

Why is it so easy for people to hear these narratives about the country or the government of China and translate them into racist sentiments against individuals?

First, it is a long standing feature of racism against people of Chinese descent (as well as people of many other Asian ethnicities) that they are imagined as being part of a single homogeneous collective, lacking in individuality. This implies that if the collective (“China”) is a threat, then any individual member of that collective is also a threat.

In addition, connecting individuals of Asian descent in the US to a threat posed by China is sometimes an explicit feature of these narratives. For example, narratives about the supposed threat of espionage or “influence” from the Chinese government consistently portray individuals of Chinese descent in the US as part of the threat. For example, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified in a 2018 Senate hearing that the espionage threat from China is “not just a whole-of-government threat, but a whole-of-society threat.” He named students and academics from China as part of this “whole-of-society threat,” language that casts anyone of Chinese descent as a potential national security threat. Wray was severely criticized by Asian American civil rights organizations but has continued to make similar sweeping claims.4 Originally appointed by President Trump, Wray was kept in place by President Biden.

Not just language but also actions communicate “China threat” narratives that can translate into racism. It is useful to compare this to the dynamics of Islamophobia in the War On Terror. Soon after the September 11, 2001, attacks, leaders of both parties, including President George W Bush, avoided speaking in ways that portrayed Islam or all Muslims as a threat to the US, saying things such as, “Islam is a religion of peace.” But these careful words were not enough to prevent widespread Islamophobic harassment and violence. Despite the rhetoric, US government policies treated both majority Muslim countries and Muslims in the US as threats, and those government actions spoke louder than words. Similarly, today we see a growth in anti-China policies that risk teaching Americans to accept “China threat” narratives with consequences for anti-Asian racism, even if political leaders are careful to use anti-racist language.

TRENDS THAT LEAD TO EXAGGERATED “CHINA THREAT” NARRATIVES

There are legitimate reasons why many in the US have become increasingly critical of the Chinese government, including escalating human rights abuses. But it has also become regular practice for figures across the political spectrum to exaggerate and inflate the threat that China poses to the US and to the vast majority of Americans. For example, in a speech on June 23, 2020, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo portrayed the threat of China in almost apocalyptic terms, warning that “If we bend the knee now, our children’s children may be at the mercy of the Chinese Communist Party,” and claiming that the Chinese Communist Party aims to destroy freedom worldwide. These ideas are echoed in the Strategic Competition Act, led by Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), a bill that currently has broad bipartisan support in the Senate: “The [People’s Republic of China] is promoting its governance model [worldwide] and attempting to weaken other models of governance by undermining democratic institutions.” It’s now common to hear US politicians and other leading figures say that China is “an existential threat” to the US, or “a threat to the American way of life.” These are all great exaggerations and distortions of both the power and the intentions of the Chinese government, and they serve to feed anti-Asian racism.

Why is it so common to exaggerate the “China threat” in these ways? Here are some contributing factors.

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

For decades, American exceptionalism has played a dominant role in American identity and the popular sense of the place of the US in the world. This is the idea that the US is essentially different from and superior to all other countries, and implies a commitment to US economic and military domination over the rest of the world. But now the US is felt to be a declining world power while China is rising and is breaking out of its previous position as a subordinate country in the US-led global system. This is experienced by many, including most political leaders, as a crisis in American exceptionalism, and a threat to American identity.

In many discussions about China we see an easy slide from the plausible claim that China is a threat to US global domination to the implausible claim that China is an existential threat to the US or a threat to every American. An unquestioned commitment to American exceptionalism can make these two claims seem equivalent. In the minds of those who have a deep investment in American exceptionalism, the sense that US global domination may be at risk can be experienced as an attack, in a way similar to how some white people experience threats to white privilege as an attack, or how some men experience threats to masculine privilege as an attack. These anxieties are exacerbated by the dysfunctions of the global economy and weak overall economic growth, which fosters a sense of zero-sum competition between countries.

SCAPEGOATING CHINA AS A POLITICAL STRATEGY

Many political leaders seek to displace blame for problems in US society onto China, hoping to channel popular anger away from them and towards a foreign threat. This has become an especially important strategy for politicians who oppose measures that would improve living conditions or address injustices within the US. President Trump failed to address the public health crisis of COVID-19 and attempted to turn China into a scapegoat for his failings. Many Republicans portray authoritarianism in China as the greatest threat to the American way of life, even as they lay the groundwork for authoritarianism in the US by spreading conspiracy theories accusing Biden of stealing the election and passing laws that disenfranchise American voters. Republican strategists aim to rebrand the Republican Party as the party of the working class by equating “anti-China” with “pro-worker,” even as the party opposes reforms such as a $15 minimum wage, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or Biden’s American Jobs Plan. And so on.