The Establishment's Newfound "Blame China" Position

A China confrontation can unite America–for good and for ill

The federal government now says COVID most likely originated from a lab leak in Wuhan, a revelation that vindicates conservatives who have been saying this for years. Once derided and censored as a conspiracy theory, the lab leak hypothesis is now the government’s official position. FBI director Christopher Wray even implied it may have been intentionally leaked. "The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,” he said in a Fox News interview. “It killed millions of Americans and that's precisely what that capability was designed for."

The shift in tone raises several questions. The most important: why have the feds and the media suddenly changed their view of the lab leak theory? In 2020, Twitter permanently banned users for mentioning a possible lab leak. Now the FBI director states it nonchalantly on national TV. 

The obvious answer is Donald Trump’s departure from the White House. America’s elite–the FBI, the “health experts,” the mainstream media—all thought the lab leak theory benefitted Trump. Then-CNN chief Jeff Zucker cited Trump as his reason for barring discussion of the theory on the network. Zucker said it was a “Trump-talking point” and ordered his reporters to not cover it. The network, in turn, published an array of articles calling the lab leak a conspiracy theory.

The establishment had a single priority in 2020: getting rid of Trump. Anything that hindered that effort was tossed aside, no matter how truthful or otherwise advantageous to various interests. The anti-Trump drive led to a variety of bizarre positions among the establishment. One was the strange defense of China. The media praised the communist government for effectively curtailing COVID. They bought the country’s ridiculously low death toll and lambasted anyone who connected the virus to China. Then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo even claimed COVID came from Europe, not China. The establishment fixated on punishing anyone who called COVID the “Wuhan virus” or the “China virus.” President Biden banned the use of those phrases as soon as he entered the White House. The so-called experts claimed that blaming China for the virus inspired anti-Asian hate crimes.

That entire nexus of concerns is a thing of the past. The establishment today is united in pursuing an anti-China policy.

The national security state, the mainstream media, and members of both political parties are now free to condemn China and warn of its encroaching power. Biden even kept Trump’s tariffs against China, in spite of business pressure to scrap them. The entire political spectrum views China as America’s enemy, and the lab leak theory further cements this antagonistic attitude. The establishment wants the public to see China as responsible for COVID and all its troubles. 

And the establishment may be right. The lab leak theory always seemed plausible. China is a general threat to the West. While the Globalist American Empire certainly has its problems, pining for Chinese global domination is a dream for Han subjugation. Americans are right to worry about the communist state, especially if it’s unleashing viruses upon the world.

But what will anti-Chinese sentiment lead to? Will it make America more nationalist, or will it prop up support for the GAE?

Ever since the end of the Cold War, America has sought an enemy to define itself against. The Soviet Union animated how America viewed itself and portrayed itself to the world. Without a great enemy to act as a foil, the U.S. went through an identity crisis. George W. Bush tried to make Islamic terrorism and the “Axis of Evil” our national enemies, but they were poor substitutes for the USSR. Radical Islam was an uncomfortable foe for liberals and Bush himself insisted Islam was a “religion of peace.” Iraq, Iran, and North Korea were far weaker countries than the U.S. They had no connection outside of David Frum’s imagination.

The Biden administration has raised the twin ideological specters of “white nationalism” and “autocracy.” White nationalism certainly excites the liberal psyche. The GAE has painted its domestic and international enemies with that single brush, using the term to link the right wing at home with Russia abroad. The same goes for autocracy, which includes non-white countries such as China and North Korea. Anti-white racism animates the modern Left more than “support for democracy.” It’s also not going to win over Red America, which correctly notes that white nationalism accusations demonize Republican voters.

China is a less divisive enemy. Only 15 percent of Americans view China favorably. While many American businesses make a lot of money in China, their dealings are frowned upon by the rest of the population. America’s economic interdependence with China doesn’t matter. America just needs a rival to define itself. China serves this need.

Rivalry with China could improve America. It could make Americans more skeptical of Chinese immigration and restrict the entry of its citizens. The increased tension is already pulling some manufacturing back to the states, paving the way for a greater degree of economic nationalism. It could also induce the government to pushback against some Chinese-endorsed left-wing ideas, such as anti-colonialism.

But there’s also the chance that anti-China sentiment bolsters support for the GAE. America may define itself against China by emphasizing our pluralism, tolerance, and hyper individualistic culture. This attitude would stress that all the things the Right loathes about modern America make us superior to China. America stressed our godliness against the godless Soviets. The New America may stress its diversity against the un-diverse Chinese. Conservatives would accept this out of hate for China. They won’t need reasons. The pitch may even turn a few righties into stalwart defenders of modern liberal values–just to own the CCP. 

We can all agree China is a problem. But right-wingers should be cautious about the establishment’s China-baiting. It may be used to browbeat the public into accepting the GAE’s dogmas.