A New Cold War Heats Up: The Republican Party is All-In On Blaming China

With President Donald Trump relenting on Sunday and admitting the US death toll from coronavirus could reach 100,000 in the very near future, efforts have increased to blame China for Trump and the Republican Party’s failures in fighting the pandemic. The strategy that has been laid out in memos and orchestrated at the party’s highest echelons kicked into high gear, with Republican Senator Ted Cruz calling China the world’s “foremost geopolitical threat” and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleged “there’s enormous evidence” the coronavirus originated from a Chinese lab.

These claims, along with Trump’s own accusations that China either created the virus or lost control of it, have coincided with the strategy memos that advise Republicans to blame China and traitorous Democrats, which Trump has targeted in recent tweets by claiming they are in league financially with China, while tying together so-called “liberal media” into a conspiracy to push Chinese propaganda. It is obvious, heading into November, that the plan is to construct a toxic stew of misinformation and rely on conspiracy theories that frame political opponents as treasonous, a plan that will undoubtedly have long-term political consequences and possibly lead to violence.

The problem is that there is absolutely no proof that the coronavirus originated from a lab or that it was either created or spread through accident. Scientists are in agreement that the virus came from China’s bat population and in the wild. Of course, Republicans have engaged in a war against science and scientists for decades in order to hide global climate change, so that has more or less rendered the expert opinion null and void within its circle.

Joining the scientists, however, is the United States intelligence services, which have been explicitly tasked with finding evidence that China created the virus or lost control over it, which the separate branches have all reported there is no such evidence. Those reports have angered Trump and Republicans desperate to offload their responsibility for this national tragedy, and have reportedly led to more and more demands.

For those who watched the lead-up to the illegal war in Iraq in 2003, this scenario inspires uncomfortable memories and significant trauma. After President George W. Bush ignored numerous warnings and failed to protect the American people from the terrorist attacks of September 11th, the Bush Administration was desperate to find scapegoats on which to blame their failures. Afghanistan made an obvious choice, but quickly the focus pivoted to Iraq, which members of Bush Administration’s - members of the Republican group Project For A New American Century - decided to use the tragedy for their own hegemony-building purposes.

Over and over, the intelligence community was ordered to find information that directly linked Iraq to 9/11, but with each directive the agencies made it clear the evidence simply didn’t exist. Not to be derailed, the Bush Administration pressed them and eventually settled for biased, faulty intelligence from a group of Iraqi rebels with a political motivation to provide whatever information achieved their goals. Though they were warned the intelligence was biased and false, the Bush Administration picked the details they needed to get their war and launched one of the most disastrous and shameful operations in American history.

We are watching that take place once more, and whether Trump or Republicans intends to simply stoke paranoia and rage to help their political fortunes or if this will actually lead to a conflict is anyone’s guess. But the blueprint is there. Scapegoating of failure on a distrusted foreign opponent. Rumors of conspiracies requiring unprecedented and dangerous action. An administration going rogue by ignoring intelligence and choosing its own reality. It’s only a matter of time until Trump hears the rumors and chatter he needs to hear. The internet is floating with so much cultural flotsam and junk. The Republican Party has been drowning in baseless paranoia for decades.

The proof they’re looking for is out there or else they’ll manufacture it wholesale. Meanwhile, Americans keep dying by the thousands.

Jared Yates Sexton is the author of American Rule: How A Nation Conquered The World But Failed Its People, available for pre-order from Dutton/Penguin-Random House. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, Politico, and elsewhere. Currently he serves as an associate professor of writing at Georgia Southern University and is the co-host of The Muckrake Podcast.