The article below by Duncan McFarland and Liu Xuegang argues that US foreign policy – particularly its increasingly hostile stance toward China – has direct and harmful consequences for Chinese and Asian communities in the US.
The authors trace a long history of anti-Asian sentiment linked to US imperialist strategy, from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to the McCarthyite Cold War propaganda of the 1940s and 50s. In recent years, tensions have escalated sharply under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Trump’s team has declared China a top strategic threat, launched a tariff war, and escalated the state’s attack on Chinese scientists, researchers and students in the US.
The article concludes that US imperialism fosters division and racism at home as it pursues global dominance. It calls for resistance to the New Cold War and urges solidarity with global movements for peace and cooperation.
The international working class does not want war. It is imperative to oppose Cold War 2.0, work for peace, and support initiatives, especially in the Global South and China, for cooperation on global issues such as climate change, pandemics, war, and poverty.
U.S. imperialism divides the world into hostile camps; this is the wrong approach. The people of the world want peace, prosperity, and cooperation. The U.S. policy of hegemony abroad promotes racism at home; the struggle for justice and freedom at home is also a struggle for peace abroad.
This article originally appeared in People’s World. The authors are members of the Asia-Pacific Subcommittee, Peace and Solidarity Commission, CPUSA.
U.S. foreign policy can have a great impact on people’s daily lives here at home, and U.S. policy toward China is a prime example. When the U.S. conducts a hostile, anti-China foreign policy, there is increased racism and repression in the Asian and Chinese American communities in the U.S.
On the other hand, when relations with China are good, such as during World War II or the 1980s, mainstream media depicted Chinese Americans as friendly, patriotic, and the “model minority.”
As U.S. imperialism’s new Cold War against China heats up, familiar patterns are repeating themselves under new conditions.
Historical background
The Central Pacific Railroad employed large numbers of Chinese immigrants to build the western half of the Transcontinental Railway, completed in 1869. However, no Chinese workers were invited to the golden spike ceremony at the completion of the project. Especially with the overthrow of Reconstruction, racist attitudes prevailed, and the Chinese Exclusion Act was signed in 1882. This blocked Chinese workers from entering the U.S.; it was the first anti-immigration legislation targeting a specific ethnic group or country of origin.
In 1913, the novel The Insidious Fu Manchu was a hit and became a cultural icon full of racist stereotypes about the ever-lurking, insidious Dr. Fu. But during the 1930s, the U.S. and China became important allies in the Pacific War against Japanese imperialism and aggression.
Continue reading US imperialism’s New Cold War against China fosters anti-Asian racism at home