Former U.S. Ambassador to China Warns: China-Bashing is ‘Very Dangerous,’ Smacks of McCarthyism

May 8, 2020 (EIRNS)—Max Baucus, former Ambassador to China from 2014–2017, told CNN on May 6 that the current China-bashing coming from the Trump Administration and more broadly, is “very dangerous” and reeks of McCarthyism.

As Xinhua reported yesterday, Baucus warned that the Administration’s anti-China rhetoric “is so strong ... it’s over the top. We’re entering a kind of an era which is similar to Joe McCarthy back, when he was red-baiting the State Department, attacking communism.” And, he added, the lack of public voices against this, is

“a little bit like Hitler in the ’30s. A lot of people knew what was going on was wrong,... but they didn’t stand up and say anything about it. They felt intimidated. And now in the United States, if anybody says anything reasonable about China, he or she feels intimidated, afraid his head is going to be chopped off.”

In Germany in the 1930s, he explained, “people who were responsible in the U.S., and especially responsible in Germany, couldn’t speak up. I worry that some of that’s happening now, and it’s very dangerous.” Baucus also argues that the U.S.’s economic crisis is also a factor in President Trump’s attacks. “Trump knows there’s a problem,” so “they have to pivot, they have to blame somebody, and they’re blaming China.” But, he warned, it’s going to be difficult to get back on track after the election, “whoever’s elected.” Asked whether his comparing the current environment in Washington and 1930s Germany is “provocative,” Baucus offered this caveat: “I think we’re moving in that direction, and I’m not saying we’re there yet, but there are a lot of very responsible people in America who know that this China-bashing is irresponsible, and we’re going to pay a price the more it continues.”