Washington’s rogue preaching intends to spark another Red Scare

Although China’s rise has become a fait accompli, the China hawks in Washington are unable to accept that fact. Convinced it represents a threat to the United States’ preeminence and in many cases a “godless” threat to their beliefs, they are now intent on whipping up anti-communist fervor at home and abroad to manufacture a new Red Scare.

While FBI director Christopher Wray has led the scare campaign against China in the US, painting a picture of sinister infiltration through US schools and colleges and collaborative research endeavors, it is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that has stood at the pulpit to preach about the evils of communism to the international community.

His butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-his-mouth demeanor has become almost ubiquitous as the US administration seeks to saturate the internet and the airwaves with its McCarthyist sermons.

Not content with harping on his customary accusations of Beijing being responsible for COVID-19 and suppressing human rights in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang, which have become staples of his cherubically delivered homilies, to the point of congregational ennui, he pulled a new rhetorical arrow from his quiver on Thursday, accusing Beijing of being “invasionist”.

Claiming he was offering his international audience “context” for what he alleged was Beijing’s “incredibly aggressive action” on the disputed border with India, he attributed it to the Chinese leadership’s “pattern of instigating territorial disputes”. He called on fellow believers to join the US in a “collective response”.

Pompeo seems to genuinely have the illusion that he is calling to the faithful, offering to lead them to the promised land, believing that “free peoples” and “democracy-loving peoples” will sacrifice their intelligence to the assumed sanctity of his words.

With the world fighting against the novel coronavirus, and looking for its “origin”, there is no sign that the US administration will put lives before politics. The US has been relentlessly smearing the World Health Organization, the only coordinator in the global fight against the common enemy. It has given notice it will walk away from the WHO in a year. Yet, Pompeo has the nerve to claim the pandemic has shown the “true color” of China — red if anyone wasn’t clear about his message.

Since China and India are engaged in negotiations to ease the tensions on the border and establish ways to prevent such tragedies happening again, Pompeo’s irresponsible remarks do a disservice to both parties.

And after quitting so many pacts and organizations, that Pompeo still believes that other countries trust his country is a lesson in self-delusion.

For a long time the US has been acting as a destabilizing power in the Asia-Pacific, as it has been doing in many other parts of the world. Generations of US administrations have devoted their energies to contain China within the “first island chain” and drive a wedge between China and its neighbors, particularly those with which China has border or maritime disputes.

By trying to inflame regional tensions and create a Red Scare, the US is highlighting the extent to which it has become a revisionist rogue state.