Some U.S. politicians have recently ramped up the “decoupling from China” rhetoric, as both Democrats and Republicans look ahead to the midterm elections amid surging COVID-19 cases and bumpy economic recovery.
Such rhetoric, according to experts, revealed the ignorance and arrogance of some American politicians, and decoupling from China will significantly hurt U.S. businesses and undermine U.S. productivity and innovation.
On Friday, Republican Senator Tom Cotton and Democratic Senator Mark Kelly introduced a bill that would prohibit Chinese rare-earth metals from being used in sensitive Department of Defense systems by 2026, taking fearmongering over China to new heights.
Cotton, one of the most vocal China hawks, said ending America’s dependence on the Communist Party of China for extraction and processing of these elements is “critical to winning the strategic competition against China and protecting our national security.”
The Arkansas senator, who has repeatedly attacked China, floated the conspiracy theory in April 2020 that the COVID-19 virus originated in a Wuhan lab, an unfounded allegation that has drawn wide criticism, both domestic and abroad.
“The U.S. political system is home to many loud-mouthed nationalists who are as ignorant as they are arrogant,” Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and senior United Nations advisor, told Xinhua via email.
“They believe that the United States has the right and the need to dominate the world, and they view China as an affront to U.S. dominance,” said the renowned economist and bestselling author.
Sachs noted that it is easy to “stir fear” in American people, “who are generally not well informed about the rest of the world,” adding that the U.S. media “has a long tradition of stirring such nationalist sentiments.”
The two senators’ decoupling remarks came just a few days after some members of the House of Representatives voiced their discontent when “MADE IN CHINA” KN95 masks were given to them amid an Omicron wave, arguing that the House shouldn’t publicly advertising U.S. dependency on China.
“Many of the current members of Congress continue to embarrass me with this infantile behavior, and this is but one more sad example,” Greg Cusack, a former member of the Iowa House of Representatives, told Xinhua. “The reaction is simply idiotic!”
“We should, instead, be grateful that China was able and willing to export so many of these masks to assist Americans (and others around the world), who otherwise would not have had access to such devices,” said the former U.S. state lawmaker.
Cusack said certain people, not limited to Americans, seem to need an enemy or adversary in order for them to make sense of the world. “Not rivals, opponents, but enemies. This, too, is part of our problem,” he said.
