Since the Korean War, the pendulum of America’s public opinion has been swinging between two extremes where the People’s Republic of China is concerned. In the 1950s, a significant majority of Americans disliked the PRC. But, in 1971, the Gallup poll found that the majority of Americans supported the PRC’s entry into the United Nations. Americans were not naive. They were just tired of the Vietnam War, and they believed that the PRC was best positioned to help end the seemingly endless disaster. So, they saw Richard Nixon’s China visit as a positive move. Today, however, it is virtually a replay of the 1950s, thanks to the Wuhan virus first and foremost.

The late US House speaker Tip O’Neill famously said, “All politics is local.” Well, locally, Americans feel strongly negative about China these days. Who can blame them? It is not really about racism per se. Deep down, it is really about the following: 

The industrious and innovative Chinese are no different from the Americans. Once the 1.4 billion Chinese throw off the yoke of tyranny and live under a DECENT system, then they will all potentially be entrepreneurs free and expressive. They will overwhelm America in no time. 

I, therefore, believe that America did not, does not, and will not want to see the rise of a United States of China. America will go on paying lip service to democracy for Mainland China, though. Meanwhile, Washington will go on keeping the belligerent CCP regime at bay. 

Realpolitik, anyone?

--- Lingyang Jiang