Guancha: A few U.S. politicians have taken a wholesale approach against China, provoking ideological confrontation between the two countries and demanding other countries side with their anti-China policy. They have touted a list of countries and regions as the pawns or sidekicks of the United States. Do you think the United States will get what it wants by using others as "cannon fodder" to advance its own agenda? Is the U.S. dragging China and the U.S. into a "new Cold War"?
Le Yucheng: The string of recent actions taken by the United States against China are aimed at stoking ideological confrontation and reviving the Cold War in the 21st century. It feels like that the specter of McCarthyism is resurfacing in the United States. In the 1950s when the United States was gripped by anti-communist hysteria, tens of thousands of people from the Chinese community there were suspected as "spies". Over 20 million people had to go through "screening". Even three-year-old kids had to sign a "loyalty oath". The idiom, "find reds under the beds", was coined to describe such insane paranoia.
Today, the witch hunt among Chinese scientists as well as arbitrary harassment and willful detainment of Chinese students in the United States are so reminiscent of the dark era of McCarthyism. Scientists, professors and scholars of Chinese descendant in the United States and those Americans who support cooperation with China are too scared to speak up. None of them feels safe anymore. They may be interrogated, searched, or even arrested by the FBI anytime. Taking actions on the basis of race and ideology is very dangerous. People should not forget that Adolf Hitler and fascism rose from suppressing communism and persecuting Jews. We must take a warning from these lessons.
In fact, through their anti-communism craziness and the hyping up of the so-called "red menace", the U.S. politicians are attempting to define China-U.S. relations with ideological confrontation and cover up their real strategic agenda to contain China, put together a so-called "coalition of free democracies", and build a clique against China. But they seem to still live in the past and have forgotten that the Cold War has been long gone, and that mankind are already in the age of globalization in the 21st century. Other than one or two U.S. henchmen, the overwhelming majority of countries refuse to be hijacked by the U.S. onto its chariot. All they think about is how to work together to defeat COVID-19, save lives, and revive the economy. They have no interest in, and even resent, ideological confrontation and a "new Cold War".
Recently, a group of former statesmen and scholars from 48 countries initiated an online event themed "A new Cold War against China is against the interests of humanity". They issued a joint statement, "No to the New Cold War", in 14 languages. It was a strong call for the United States to stop forming cliques and dividing the world. Even Secretary Pompeo himself admitted the difficulty in building an international alliance against China, and was "surprised and dismayed" that so many countries support China.
