The China Syndrome: From Massage Parlors to the CIA

In his bloody attacks on two Atlanta massage parlors, including the slayings of six women of Asian descent, mass murderer Robert Long was clearly in the grip of racist and sexist mania. But let’s take this to the next level. Long was also in the demonic grip of his rigid Southern Baptist upbringing, which defines sexual pleasure outside of traditional heterosexual marriage as hell-bound sin. There are countless young men in America like Long who are whipsawed between an increasingly anarchic (and racist) pornographic culture and its B-side – an equally zealous and soul-killing Christian fundamentalism.

Democrats were also quick to blame Trump for the spike in anti- Asian violence, And, of course, the deposed dictator – now sunning himself with reptilian luxuriousness in his Florida swamp – was indeed guilty of frequently bashing China as the source of “kung flu” disease and other treacheries.

President Biden, on the other hand, has been full of concern for America’s fearful Asian communities. He and Vice President Kamala Harris met with a range of Atlanta’s Asian leaders today. But meanwhile Biden’s secretary of state, Tony Blinken, was duking it out yesterday in full view of the press with his Chinese counterpart at a very undiplomatic conference in Anchorage. And the Senate was unanimously confirming William Burns as the new CIA director, who spent his confirmation hearings targeting “predatory” China for daring to challenge U.S. economic and technological power.

Biden CIA chief William Burns (left) wants to go adversarial with China

I’m no apologist for Xi Jinping’s regime, especially its iron-fisted response to Hong Kong’s democracy movement and minority groups like the Uighurs. But, as China’s top diplomat told Blinken yesterday, the United States has a lot of gall lecturing Beijing about human rights these days – after the wave of unpunished police murders of Black Americans, the January 6 uprising, and the growing white nationalist threat. Sorry, Tony, but just “acknowledging” your national demons does not exorcise them.

Joe Biden has already done many things right on the domestic front, rolling back the dark reaction of the Trump years. Just this week, his successful Cabinet appointments of two strong progressives -- Native American Deb Haaland as interior secretary and Xavier Becerra as heath and human services secretary – underline the new era in Washington. Biden’s new deal has also inspired political leaders to his left – like Senator Bernie Sanders – to become more influential players. As Tim Redmond pointed out in 48 Hills, Sanders’s hearings on economic inequality this week were historic, even if largely ignored by the media.

The newly confirmed interior secretary, Deb Haaland

But if the Biden presidency is to truly usher in a new American era, it must begin downsizing the U.S. empire – not starting a new Cold War with China, or dropping more bombs on Afghanistan and Syria. Biden can’t keep talking out of both sides of his mouth: peace and sanity at home and murder and mayhem abroad.