Commentary: America's obsession with poisoning the well of China

BEIJING, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Soon after Chinese regulators fined a few foreign enterprises for falsely advertising goods or services in China, several U.S. media outlets jumped up and down to stigmatize China's lawful act, accusing such moves of probably fueling a wave of nationalist consumption.

The recent manipulation of these media outlets has offered a glimpse of how anti-China forces in the United States abuse their sway to mislead global public opinion on China: First, put a label on China; then, quote anti-China radicals, who pretend to be authoritative China observers, to prove their ill-founded argument.

The United States seems to have long been obsessed with poisoning the well of China. It has been peddling completely fabricated claims about Xinjiang such as the so-called "genocide" and "forced labor," while the truth is that the region has witnessed remarkable progress in recent years: Living standards have significantly improved; and citizens' right to freedom of religious belief is fully guaranteed as well.

In fact, the Uygur population continues to grow. There are more than 24,000 mosques in the region, more than 10 times the number in the United States.

Some China-hardliners in Washington used to call the violent acts by rioters in Hong Kong "a beautiful sight to behold." They have also been active in interfering in China's domestic affairs by falsely accusing the country of crippling "democracy" and suppressing "press freedom" in Hong Kong. The truth is that the city has seen growing social stability and tranquility more than a year after a national security law came into force.

On origins tracing of the novel coronavirus, the United States has also been hyping up the so-called "Wuhan lab leak" conspiracy theory. Yet the fact is that more and more political leaders, experts and media outlets worldwide have rejected such a highly politicized theory.

In fact, the international community has more than once said no to Washington's politicization of the scientific issue. Earlier this year, more than 300 political parties, social societies and think tanks from over 100 countries and regions opposed politicizing the disease's origins in a joint statement sent to the World Health Organization Secretariat.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has also been one of Washington's targets to slander. While some American politicians and press groups love to smear the BRI as "debt traps," the initiative has actually brought about development opportunities for all who jump aboard.

According to a report from the World Bank, BRI transport projects could by 2030 help lift 7.6 million people out of extreme poverty and 32 million out of moderate poverty globally. And this is part of the reason why some 140 countries have joined the initiative.

For the United States, poisoning the well of China is rather low-cost and relatively stealthy. Just as German author Michael Lueders has revealed in his book "The Hypocritical Superpower," the U.S. government and its interest groups are apt at influencing and shaping public opinion by selecting information and polarizing the public's views.

One key reason that America's such manipulative efforts could work at times is because of some long-standing prejudice, even ignorance, about China, in the West.

According to an article in late 2019 by U.S. publication Executive Intelligence Review, "most people in the United States and Europe know very little about China and its 5,000-year-old culture, which makes it relatively easy for the geopolitically motivated mainstream media and exponents of the anti-China lobby to paint a completely distorted picture of the country."

Fortunately, more and more people have started to sober up to America's despicable anti-China scheme. It means that when the United States continues with its obsession with poisoning the well of China, it also detaches itself from the trust of the broader international community.