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A At a recent China town hall held by the New York-based National Committee on US-China Relations, Susan Rice, the former US national security advisor, said China remains the most reliable how whipping China boy poses — after probabnlaytiHonilalalrsyecCulirnittyotnharenadt Stousthane RUicneitheedrSsetalft.es. SThheeetxhprreessredastohnast hUeSgpaoveli,chyomwaekveerrs, arned lelaudgehrsabnleeadntdopbaermanooried,juadriecflioeuctsi onohfotwhe ththeiyndkienpgloiny CanhiinacrienaUsiSngdonmateiosntiaclpsoecliutircitsy, asdtdatien.g that a lot of heated rhetoric applied to CThhienafirmstarkeeassoUnS, pacocloicrydminagktiongCodrinffyicnu, lits.

thSahte“Cmhiignhatwbeasjuassttjaotkei-ncognctoromllpeadreincognhoemr-y, swelhf iacnhdeCxplilnatinons whityhCChhininaap, obsuetstahethardematissuionnlibkey aanfoyromtheerrs.”enior White House official about Second, China he bashing claims that is quite China telling. has been conducting For years, many a “provocative Chinese military have watched buildup”, with such great as the frustration building of how artificial US politicians, islands in often the South with scant China knowledge Sea. of the outside world, Third, used he China alleged as that a bogeyman China is using in order every to score tool at in its US disposal domestic to politics, close the or technology simply to win gap votes. with the US in an attempt “to erase our military Some Chinese technological have tried edge to and view turn this our in a positive knowhow light, against saying us”. such fear-mongering about Cornyn, China a reflects Republican, their is country’s the one of fast the rise and lawmakers success. who recently introduced a bill, known as the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2017, to expand the power of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) in its scrutiny of foreign investment in the US, especially targeting investment from China.

The bill has triggered an outcry in both the legal and investment communities over a CFIUS process that is regarded as biased against Chinese investment.

The result is a knee-jerk reaction that anything relating to China is bad ... China bashing hurts not only China but also the United States. Cornyn must be living in the early 1970s, before China started its reform and opening up.

China has made tremendous strides forward over the last four decades. Its economy, which was smaller than California’s in the late 1970s, has become the world’s secondlargest, or the largest, according to the International Monetary Fund using purchasingpower parity.

China bashing is politically fashionable in a large Cornyn part must of the be Washington living in the establishment. early 1970s, before Basically, China started you can its reform accuse China and opening of any unsubstantiated up. allegations, or just plain lies, Today and not China’s be held state-owned responsible. enterprises No US news contribute media less would than bother a third to of fact the check. country’s GDP, Such much nasty less US than politics private do not enterprises just reflect and on foreign-funded China. Politicians ventures. in both Even the if China’s Republican economy and Democratic has a higher parties percentage attack of each state other control, virtually exactly every how day it in poses order a national to score security personally, threat to ignoring the US is the still real beyond issues imagination. that matter Politicians to the American in other people countries who have elected not them. raised such a threat.

The His partisan military-buildup politics has part made is equally Washington laughable more if Cornyn dysfunctional. looked at The the US China defense bashing has budget, had an which impact is larger on people’s than the perception next 10 and countries even policymaking, combined. as Rice admitted.

The In the result South is a China knee-jerk Sea, China reaction was that the anything last country relating there to to China build artificial is bad, just islands, like when a fact the Obama administration rallied US allies acknowledged by the US State Department. in 2015 in what turned out to be a failed mission

Cornyn did not say why those artificial to reject the Asian Infrastructure islands built by other countries are OK and Investment Bank initiated by China. do not pose a national security threat to the

The Regional Comprehensive Economic US. Partnership has been portrayed as a Chinaled,

In the past four decades, China has indeed low-standard trade agreement that is been closing the technology gap. Other successful bad for the region, despite the fact that it examples in East Asia include Japan was proposed by the Association of Southeast and the Four Little Tigers — South Korea, Asian Nations and does represent a step Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Why forward in regional economic integration they don’t pose a national security threat to and liberalization. the US? Even in her China town hall talk, Rice’s Cornyx is not alone in making “national criticism of Chinese investment in Africa security” his catchphrase. Many US politicians and the Belt and Road Initiative is best use and abuse “national security” in described as nitpicking, overlooking the order to hijack the debate because anyone huge bright side of the stories. opposing it would be described as putting

It’s quite possible that the public was misled the nation in danger. by the rhetoric of their politicians and

If Cornyn’s logic is right, China should news media in various polls about China. reverse its recent decision to open up its For example, a Nov 9 Pew survey showed financial sector to US investors. After all, the that 46 percent of Americans see China’s US is the country that uses its dominance in power and influence as a major threat to the the global financial system to threaten others. well-being of the United States; 40 percent

In 2010, the US government ordered its said it’s a minor threat, and only 11 percent financial giants Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, said it’s not a threat. Bank of America and Western Union to

What’s most troubling is that many pundits impose a banking blockade against WikiLeaks look increasingly like politicians and after it published US diplomatic cables. hold only one-sided views of China, thereby Who can be sure that those firms will not damaging their own credibility as scholars turn against China one day under similar or researchers. orders? China, like any country in the world, does If Cornyn’s logic is applied, China should good things and makes mistakes. China keep close scrutiny on companies like deserves credit when it does good things, Boeing, General Electric and Honeywell, due and it’s absolutely all right to point it out to their close ties with the US military, and when China makes errors. there are many US companies that are contractors

That should be the right approach for of the US federal government. pundits and news media, as well as US politicians,

I am glad that people in China do not to keep their citizens well informed show the same paranoia as Cornyn, a senator and to formulate good policies. China bashing in the world’s only superpower with a hurts not only China but also the United nuclear arsenal capable of destroying the States. planet 100 times.