Biden Administration’s Policy on China: McCarthyism 2.0?

A mentor of mine Academician Datuk Ir (Dr) Lee Yee Cheong, after reading my recent articles on Biden Administration’s assault on China, suggested that I bring to my readers’ attention about the reemergence of McCarthyism in the US today.

I have known Datuk Lee since the late 1970s when the late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong of the Genting Highlands fame was trying anxiously to electrify his resort by tapping into the national grid from the foothill of his resort; hitherto he had to depend on generators which greatly impeded the resort’s potential. Datuk Lee had just resigned from the national electricity authority to start an electrical engineering consulting firm. The 132/33KV lines his firm designed helped transform Genting Highlands into an international resort.

By the time I caught up with Datuk Lee again, he was already a renowned authority on infrastructure matters and a recognized champion of STEM education, not only in Malaysia but throughout the region. In fact, he was already an international figure, having helped many parts of the world organised institutional support to beef up their development efforts. In Malaysia alone, he helped the government to start the Academy of Sciences Malaysia and was its founding Secretary-General. Datuk is a former president of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia and the founder president of the ASEAN Academy of Engineering & Technology, amongst many other credentials.

Datuk Lee has just released the second edition of his autobiography: THINK MALAYSIAN, ACT GLOBAL.

I saw the dotted line he wanted me to connect and was happy to make an attempt.

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What has McCarthyism had to do with China and Chinese?

A little background…

World War II ended in 1945. The US became the world’s new top dog and China took its place at the victory podium in a hardly breathing condition. But Joseph Stalin was not content to play second fiddle to the US.

Soviet Union successfully tested an atom bomb in 1949 and the world entered a new war. This time it was a cold war between two of the most formidable powers in the world. And their ideologies are diametrically opposite.

And despite George Marshall’s unstinting efforts to reconcile Kuomintang and Mao Zedong’s ragtag army of Communist peasant-soldiers, China fell to the latter in 1949. (Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, The China Mission, 2018.) It was just inevitable. Kuomintang was simply too corrupt and inept to win the hearts and minds of the huge masses in a country that had been totally ravaged by the Japanese and the subsequent civil war.

Mao was seen as the liberator. Chiang Kai-Shek and his remnants fled to Taiwan. Many of these subsequently ended up in America.  

Joseph McCarthy, a charismatic US senator, was an anti-Soviet crusader. A Red Scare which was already in place under President Harry Truman was brought into the fore. Hitherto only all federal employees were screened for possible association with organizations deemed "totalitarian, fascist, communist, or subversive", McCarthy spearheaded a witch-hunt campaign instead and it began in 1950.  The primary targets of McCarthyist persecution were government employees, prominent figures in the entertainment industry, academics, left-wing politicians, and labor union activists. Many of his victims were only remotely associated with Socialist or Communist causes or movements, nonetheless, they were deemed treasonous and persecuted.

Joseph McCarthy

Although McCarthy was discredited in 1954, the second Red Scare had already been ingrained in American psyche. (President Dwight Eisenhower actually strengthened and extended Truman's loyalty review program. Even Robert Oppenheimer, the scientific director of the Manhattan Project that built the first atomic bomb, was stripped of his security clearance.) And the henchman in all this: J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

When Senator Joseph McCarthy started, he and his allies paid no attention to Chinese Americans. He only blamed George Marshall for “losing” China.

Then came the Korean War. General MacArthur’s huge army was subdued by the Chinese forces. The humiliation was unbearable. China and Chinese became American’s new enemies.

 

When China entered the Korean War on the side of North Korea, Chinese American communities suddenly attracted public attention in unwelcome ways. Chinese Americans were “numbed with fear” and had to wrestle with the feeling that “being Chinese is itself a crime.” Even children felt the need to prove their loyalty in school. Pro-Kuomintang thugs often beat up local Chinese who were perceived to be supporters or sympathizers of Mao’s China. In one incident, some fifteen of these “supporters” and “sympathizers” were singled out for liquidation. A reward of $5000 was offered for anyone willing to do the job. (These goons remind me of today’s Mike Pompeo’s China advisor like Miles Yu Maochun and author Gordon Chong, amongst many others.) It is said that the Kuomintang supporters soon discovered that their previous collusion with federal officials to persecute community leftists won them no reprieve from investigation themselves. How ironical!

 

Chinese had to lower their heads and tiptoe their ways around to earn a living.

And in the eyes of many Chinese today, McCarthyism is synonymous with the persecution of Chinese in the 1950s in America, even though there were more villains than McCarthy. President Harry Truman was certainly one of them.

 

Going a little back in history…

1840s saw thousands braved the journey to the gold mountains in America, Australia and even New Zealand in search of gold, despite the known dangers and hardship. From 1863 to 1869, roughly 15,000 workers went to America to help build the transcontinental railroad there. 

Above: Chinese gold diggers in California; Below: Building cross-continental railroad in the US

Unfortunately, their efforts were hardly recognized or appreciated. In the Truman years, Chinese had often been depicted as Fu Manchu or sub-humans to be bullied or kicked around. (See pictures below.)

  

The portrayal of Chinese, Top: Christopher Lee as the sinister Dr Fu Manchu, Right: Chinese as sub-humans

 

What was the West’s image of China and Chinese?

The man with a ridiculous pigtail!

Chinese have already been humiliated in their own countries for almost three hundred years! Wearing a pigtail was a symbol of subserviency to the Manchu court. Slowly it also came to be accepted even by the high officials of Han descent; it was a way of life. But it was the perfect focus of western cartoonists’ creativities. For decades, it was the symbol of Chinese evilness, ugliness, lowliness, and what-have-you.

This was followed by the Mao suits in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, which became a symbol of Chinese isolationism. Fortunately, China had become strong, and wearing Mao suits no longer raises eyebrows. It is even a fashion statement!

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Datuk Lee is concerned that the present Biden Administration seems to be bringing back McCarthyism, consciously or subconsciously. In his words, “What was so insidious of McCarthyism was the widespread use of lies, half-truths, fake news and misinformation and manipulation of the media by McCarthy and his cohorts. The same methods are being used by the Biden Administration, US Congress and mass media in the US.”

I totally agree with him. Shall I call Biden’s Policy on China “McCarthyism 2.0”?

To me Trump kindled the new McCarthyism. His effort, like Version 1 McCarthy, was somewhat narrow – mainly concerning the trade imbalances with China and to some extent an alarm over China’s prowess in high-tech. (Hence his sanctions on Huawei and several Chinese technology firms.) But Biden is different. His is an all-out attack to cripple China. There is enough coverage for all and sundry to come to this conclusion and there is no need for me to enumerate here.

I just want to say a few things on this new McCarthyism that is not only taking roots in America today, but appearing to spread across Canada, the UK, many countries in Europe, India, Japan and Australia.

And this has made Chinese feel insecure all over the western world. Fortunately, the leaders of the non-western world are largely aware of the situation and are happy to either remain neutral of help tell the truth. The wisdom amongst the leaders of Southeast Asia is particularly comforting.

I always say this: there is a racist in every one of us. But much of our racism is premised on prejudices that we have built up mentally over acts or behaviours that we saw in people whom we consider “not us”. We don’t usually say we have the divine- or birth- or colour-right to act in a superior manner. Biden may have initiated congressional bills to protect “Asians”, and many countries in Europe might have supported the recent UN on human rights, but to me all this may be too little and too late. This cold truth remains: As long as these efforts are not borne out of heart but head, they are not genuine and helpful. This is amply demonstrated by his administration’s high officials each time they seek to (rather than with) China. Fu Manchu, we are talking from our position of strength!

The world needs to wake up. See how Biden is leaving the Afghans to fend for themselves!

I am not a supporter of Taliban. But the rate they are seizing territories reminds me of the dying days of the Kuomintang in China. After almost a trillion has been spent and thousands of American lives lost, Biden still thinks American can walk tall. The Afghan government that America has helped built is just a house of cards. It is without any foundation.

Come on, hardly 300 years of history as a nation and 50 years as a superpower, in the context of the history of humanity, is just a flash in the pan. Moreover, your nation is founded on slavery and built not with a unanimous mission to improve the lives of all in your country, but is actually a patchwork of divisive interests to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Take away the glue that had been binding you, i.e., the strength that was constantly being infused into society by quality immigrants from all over the world, you will surely decline in no time.

I love America, but I just cannot stand the short-sightedness of its present breed of leaders. Period.

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The following is the rejoinder from Datuk Lee:

I want to stress I also love America growing up on movies of Frank Capra like Meet Joe Doe, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Mr Deeds Goes to Town and believing USA is a land of opportunity for ordinary folks.

I have an abiding adoration for President Franklin Roosevelt for founding the UN; supporting the then downtrodden China as a great power deserving of a permanent seat in the Security Council and opposing Churchill's desire to restore the British colonial empire after the Second World War.

I do not like or dislike the Taliban that was built up by USA in fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Remember Tom Hanks in Charlie Wilson's War!

As always, USA has never won friends and influence ordinary people through efforts to make their lives better. Instead, they installed puppet regimes that are friendly only to their military and business interests.

Let Afghans and Afghanistan alone do what they want with their country. Are their actions against women any worse than those of Saudi?

Let us not interfere with affairs of other countries and make things worse. US should realise every action has an equal and opposite reaction!

I am optimistic that US will realize they are no longer the supreme power to overlord every country on the face of this Earth, neither are they are the Richard the Lion Heart with sword in one hand and Bible in the other. If COVID-19 has any salutary effect, it may well be that the worst country in managing the pandemic will get to realise it is but a part of common humanity.

End