The coronavirus crisis is turning Americans in both parties against China

[Faith_Lock]

This is an article from the Washington Post. It is based on the most recent poll.

Personally, I think President Xi's insistence to not fight back is very damaging to China's welfare.

Anyway, the link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...turning-americans-both-parties-against-china/

The coronavirus crisis is turning Americans in both parties against China

President Xi Jinping, center, and other Chinese leaders stand in silence at the Zhongnanhai leadership compound in Beijing on Saturday in honor of victims of the coronavirus. (Xinhua/Reuters)
By
Josh Rogin
Columnist
April 8, 2020 at 5:00 a.m. CDT

The Chinese government’s mismanagement of the covid-19 outbreak, and how the United States should respond, are caught up in the partisan politics of Washington. But around the country, Americans in both parties increasingly agree that the United States needs a tougher, more realistic China strategy that depends less on the honesty and goodwill of the Chinese government.

It’s difficult to gauge — in the middle of the crisis — how exactly the U.S.-China relationship is changing. But everyone senses it will never be the same. Political leaders in Washington and Beijing have put their war of words on hold for the moment. But there is clear evidence that China is planning to use the crisis to its economic and political advantage worldwide.


Inside the Beltway, Republicans attack Democrats, Joe Biden and the media for not being critical enough of the Chinese Communist Party. Democrats attack President Trump for saying “Chinese virus” and attack any Republicans who blame the coronavirus pandemic on the CCP as racist.


Yet a new poll shows that, outside the Beltway, the coronavirus crisis is actually bringing Americans together on the China issue. Republicans and Democrats now largely agree that the Chinese government bears responsibility for the spread of the pandemic, that it can’t be trusted on this or any other issue, and that the U.S. government should maintain a tough position on China on trade and overall, especially if Beijing again falters in its commitments.

“It’s as much of a consensus issue as you can get in today’s divided world,” said Mark Penn, chairman of the Harris Poll. “Overall, there’s very little trust for anything that the Chinese government says or does, especially its premier. Xi Jinping has less than half the credibility of President Trump in this poll.”

Of the nationally representative sample of 1,993 American adults Harris surveyed online between April 3 and April 5, a net total of 23 percent said Xi, the Chinese president, was a trustworthy source of information related to the covid-19 outbreak, with Republicans and Democrats closely aligned. The White House and the U.S. media rated 53 and 60 percent in trustworthiness, respectively, with Republicans tending to support the former and Democrats the latter.


The bipartisan consensus on China doesn’t stop there. Ninety percent of Republicans said the Chinese government is responsible for the spread of the virus, compared to 67 percent of Democrats. Only 22 percent of Republicans and 34 percent of Democrats said they thought the Chinese government reported their coronavirus statistics accurately.

On trade, there’s even more agreement. Neither party seems to know whether China will fulfill its obligations under Trump’s “phase one” trade deal. But strong majorities in both parties believe that the U.S. government should reimpose tough tariffs if Beijing doesn’t live up to its obligations. Majorities in both parties also believe U.S. manufacturers should pull back from China in the wake of the crisis.

While it seems Americans in both parties are not buying Chinese Communist Party propaganda about the coronavirus crisis, there is less consensus about what to do about it. While 71 percent of Republicans responded that China should pay other countries in some way for the damage done because of the outbreak, only 41 percent of Democrats felt that way.


A firm majority of Republicans, 66 percent, said Trump should take an even tougher position on China than he currently does. Among Democrats, 38 percent said Trump should be tougher, 23 percent said he should be softer and 38 percent said he has it about right. Republicans favor Trump calling it the “Chinese virus” and approve his unilateral use of sanctions to punish Chinese officials who lied about the virus. Democrats overwhelmingly oppose both these things.

The political question for Biden, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, and other party leaders is whether they will take this opportunity to close ranks on the China issue, taking away the Republicans’ political advantage, or instead adopt what some on the far left are pushing — a pro-engagement strategy that paints the United States, not Beijing, as the bigger part of the problem.

“That kind of policy doesn’t have a lot of political currency outside of some support among some younger voters,” Penn said. “The majority support here is for making China live up to its promises, regarding China as basically untrustworthy and having a tougher trade policy against them.”


Outside of this poll, there were plenty of indications of hardening attitudes toward the Chinese government in both parties before the coronavirus crisis. Just in the past year, Sens. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) have been working together to punish China for failing to curb the influx of fentanyl into the United States.

Outrage at the Chinese government’s internment of over 1 million Uighur and other ethnic Muslims in Xinjiang province has brought together the likes of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) The Chinese government’s mishandling of the coronavirus is just the latest example of how its misdeeds and lies are affecting Americans in every state and from every walk of life.

Leaders in both parties should take a look at the data, listen to their constituents and then stop using China as a political weapon against their opponents, because that’s exactly what the CCP wants us to do. Working together to confront China’s bad behavior is not just a national security imperative. It’s also smart politics.

 

[tower9]

Both parties are already anti-China. This is just going to increase hostilities and racism for Asian Americans. China and the US are on the fast track for a messy decoupling.

 

[jaibi]

It may also be to blunt the votes of the Asian American community because Yang made some waves despite the media's efforts otherwise. Honestly, this is not a political problem I don't know why people are forcing it to be.

Both parties are already anti-China. This is just going to increase hostilities and racism for Asian Americans. China and the US are on the fast track for a messy decoupling.

 

[S10]

You act like American politicians were friendly to China to begin with.

 

[tower9]

It may also be to blunt the votes of the Asian American community because Yang made some waves despite the media's efforts otherwise. Honestly, this is not a political problem I don't know why people are forcing it to be.

Yang is just a marginal player, he's not really important in the big scheme of things.

If you really want to understand why the US has become hysterically anti-China, just understand this, the financier class of Wall Street, the REAL OWNERS of the US, came to the conclusion probably circa 2016-2017 that the administration of Xi Jinping will not allow them any influence or political power in China's government. American corporations were and are welcome to make money in China, but the globalist financier class lost a lot of influence during Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drives and it was clear that China was a nationalist government that will brook no outside influence in its matters. This, coupled with China's clear advancement as a technological innovator as illustrated by the likes of Huawei, Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, DJI and much more, meant that not only was China far outside the influence of the financier class, but it became clear that China may realistically overtake the current host (USA) that this financier class was feeding on, as the globalist financier class is a social parasite.

Therefore, the conclusion was that "China had betrayed them" by pretending to move towards liberalism but after it had acquired the manufacturing, technological and industrial capabilities from decades of capitalist investment, it still remained an independent and nationalist state.

If you understand this, then all of the anti-China propaganda becomes clear. Guess who controls the Western mainstream media?

 

[Paul2]

China and the US are on the fast track for a messy decoupling.

Personally, I think President Xi's insistence to not fight back is very damaging to China's welfare.

I don't think that both of these would ever matter.

US had far bigger things to go after China for, CPC, or Xi personally. They don't need extra pretexts to escalate.

Previously, Aquino of Philippines, and Razak of Malaysia did both inform US of their intents to take action in the South China sea. What Obama (who was by far the most right leaning president US saw since Lyndon) did? Not only he didn't do anything to support them, he pretty much exploded on them for "destabilising" the region, and told them to shut up, and not to obstruct business in between US and China.

Americans are not there for real. It took Xi a single call to shut up Trump, when he got fired up for him going after him personally.

And even if this will be the case of America getting serious about China, I would only be glad for more escalation to happen.

It will be the long needed punch to the face to political establishment here. When money was raining from the sky onto CPC elites from US-China trade, they turned completely complacent, playing the fool with matters of existential importance to the nation, thinking any shit will go when they have so much money.

They would've never gotten serious unless their personal livelihoods be impacted from all the tomfoolery they did since 2013.

 

[ZeEa5KPul]

Yang is just a marginal player, he's not really important in the big scheme of things.

If you really want to understand why the US has become hysterically anti-China, just understand this, the financier class of Wall Street, the REAL OWNERS of the US, came to the conclusion probably circa 2016-2017 that the administration of Xi Jinping will not allow them any influence or political power in China's government. American corporations were and are welcome to make money in China, but the globalist financier class lost a lot of influence during Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drives and it was clear that China was a nationalist government that will brook no outside influence in its matters. This, coupled with China's clear advancement as a technological innovator as illustrated by the likes of Huawei, Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, DJI and much more, meant that not only was China far outside the influence of the financier class, but it became clear that China may realistically overtake the current host (USA) that this financier class was feeding on, as the globalist financier class is a social parasite.

Therefore, the conclusion was that "China had betrayed them" by pretending to move towards liberalism but after it had acquired the manufacturing, technological and industrial capabilities from decades of capitalist investment, it still remained an independent and nationalist state.

If you understand this, then all of the anti-China propaganda becomes clear. Guess who controls the Western mainstream media?

The first sensible thing I've read from you here and you knocked it out of the park. That was superb. Well done!

 

[Viet]

Yang is just a marginal player, he's not really important in the big scheme of things.

If you really want to understand why the US has become hysterically anti-China, just understand this, the financier class of Wall Street, the REAL OWNERS of the US, came to the conclusion probably circa 2016-2017 that the administration of Xi Jinping will not allow them any influence or political power in China's government. American corporations were and are welcome to make money in China, but the globalist financier class lost a lot of influence during Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drives and it was clear that China was a nationalist government that will brook no outside influence in its matters. This, coupled with China's clear advancement as a technological innovator as illustrated by the likes of Huawei, Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, DJI and much more, meant that not only was China far outside the influence of the financier class, but it became clear that China may realistically overtake the current host (USA) that this financier class was feeding on, as the globalist financier class is a social parasite.

Therefore, the conclusion was that "China had betrayed them" by pretending to move towards liberalism but after it had acquired the manufacturing, technological and industrial capabilities from decades of capitalist investment, it still remained an independent and nationalist state.

If you understand this, then all of the anti-China propaganda becomes clear. Guess who controls the Western mainstream media?

You hit the point. The US is there where Vietnam was there long ago. The US feels betrayed by China. They feel bitterness. We feel betrayed, feel the same bitterness when the chinese under Deng attacked Vietnam in an attempt to save their blood Khmer bro’s in Cambodia.

The US relationship now to the chinese is damaged beyond repair.

 

[tower9]

You hit the point. The US is there where Vietnam was there long ago. The US feels betrayed by China. They feel bitterness. We feel betrayed, feel the same bitterness when the chinese under Deng attacked Vietnam in an attempt to save their blood Khmer bro’s in Cambodia.

The US relationship now to the chinese is damaged beyond repair.

Sure but the comparison is not the same. For the Wall Street class, they feel betrayed because they realized that they would never be given any political control over China. Whereas with the Hu Jintao era, they had significant influence over some of the factions in the CCP like the Jiang Zemin clique for example, who were far more eager to orient China towards the West and even allow the entry of the Financier parasite class. I call them parasites because that's what they are, they feed on a host. Look at how they've damaged the standing of the United States over the last 50 years.

 

[Paul2]

Sure but the comparison is not the same. For the Wall Street class, they feel betrayed because they realized that they would never be given any political control over China. Whereas with the Hu Jintao era, they had significant influence over some of the factions in the CCP like the Jiang Zemin clique for example, who were far more eager to orient China towards the West and even allow the entry of the Financier parasite class. I call them parasites because that's what they are, they feed on a host. Look at how they've damaged the standing of the United States over the last 50 years.

FYI: it was Xi's administration who has allowed foreign banks to operate in China just a year ago.

 

[Viet]

Sure but the comparison is not the same. For the Wall Street class, they feel betrayed because they realized that they would never be given any political control over China. Whereas with the Hu Jintao era, they had significant influence over some of the factions in the CCP like the Jiang Zemin clique for example, who were far more eager to orient China towards the West and even allow the entry of the Financier parasite class. I call them parasites because that's what they are, they feed on a host. Look at how they've damaged the standing of the United States over the last 50 years.

No I don’t think they want to control China nor want to impose another political system on China. The US money elites only want to make money. The biggest mistake the chinese made is challenge US hegemony. China wants to drive the US out of East Asia. That is something the Washington political elites will never accept. Banning Huawei is just a small piece in the bigger game.

That’s the problem the chinese don’t understand. Demanding the US to leave East Asia is like asking Adolf Hitler to surrender unconditionally. No way, like Hitler, the US will mobilize all resources and fight until the bitter end.

 

[ZeEa5KPul]

FYI: it was Xi's administration who has allowed foreign banks to operate in China just a year ago.

Yeah, after Chinese banks became behemoths that could eat them for lunch. Xi is a lot more market-oriented than people give him credit for. If a sector of the Chinese economy is strong enough to take on global challengers, he's happy to open that sector to foreign competition. The same logic holds in allowing Tesla to open a factory in China.

 

[tower9]

No I don’t think they want to control China nor want to impose another political system on China. The US money elites only want to make money. The biggest mistake the chinese made is challenge US hegemony. China wants to drive the US out of East Asia. That is something the Washington political elites will never accept.

I disagree. The globalist financier class want full control of every society. China was a huge prize to be won. For decades, they hoped that eventually China would liberalize and allow them to expand their influence into China's policy making process which would allow them to gain control of China's political system and expand their dominance.

You are confusing the financier class with American corporations. Even though they are intertwined, they are not necessarily the same. American corporations made huge money in China and continue to do so. They are represented by institutions like the American chamber of commerce. They were made nervous by the Trump tariffs which severely disrupted their business and they are nervous about the decoupling between the US and China.

The financier class, which is the one that holds real power in the US, is another thing altogether.

 

[Aasimkhan]

You hit the point. The US is there where Vietnam was there long ago. The US feels betrayed by China. They feel bitterness. We feel betrayed, feel the same bitterness when the chinese under Deng attacked Vietnam in an attempt to save their blood Khmer bro’s in Cambodia.

The US relationship now to the chinese is damaged beyond repair.

You vietnamese won the war with the help and support of China and then you went and sat in the lap of USA. China did not betray you, you betrayed china

 

[tower9]

FYI: it was Xi's administration who has allowed foreign banks to operate in China just a year ago.

Operate, sure. They have no control over policy making however. The financier class isn't satisfied with just making money, they want complete control.

China's real threat is not that it's beyond their control but it has the capability to surpass the wealth and power of their current host, the United States, which is being sucked dry.