(Source: China Daily, 2023-01-16)

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When it comes to running the economy and foreign policy,  Washington's politicians often look for someone to blame, and most often  it is China

Editor's note: What exactly does the China threat mean? China Daily  reviews the historical bonds between China and the US by inviting  experts, entrepreneurs and influencers to discuss the current status of  relations in terms of cultural exchanges, economic connections and  military confrontation. The internet documentary series The Myth of the  China Threat offers a timely review of the China-US relationship and  what it means for the world.

After receiving an offer to study computer science from Vanderbilt  University in Nashville, Tennessee, Liu Zheng planned to pursue a  doctorate there in 2020. However, Presidential Proclamation 10043 signed  by Donald Trump in May of that year left him no choice but to start  looking for a job in Beijing instead, he said.

An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 Chinese students who specialize in STEM  (science, technology, engineering and math) studies have been denied  visas to enter the US because of the proclamation.

PP10043 prohibits students who have graduated from universities it  alleges support what it calls China's military-civil fusion program  from obtaining certain US visas on the grounds that they could engage in  espionage. The students say they find the reasoning unconvincing.

The list was compiled by the think tank the Australian Strategic  Policy Institute, or ASPI, Liu said. They did not do real research, but  they pin the blame on the victims.

Liu's undergraduate studies, the internet of things engineering,  involves operating home appliances using an Android device. Seeing some  kind of connection between his studies and China's military is  preposterous, he said.

ASPI is known for its ties with the Pentagon, foreign governments and  weapons manufacturers, and it has published a series of reports that  target Chinese universities based on unverified assumptions.

PP10043 involves a series of moves by the US government that aim at  countering the China threat, with a narrative of a malevolent China  and Chinese people acting as government agents controlling the country's  foreign policy and popular culture.

 A factory tour at WM Motor. MEDIA UNLOCKED STUDIO

China as a looming threat to the US has long become the primary  driver of Western media coverage of China. If we write a favorable  story about China it gets put on page 26 of the newspaper, or it's not  covered at all, said Stapleton Roy, former US ambassador to China. But  if I talk about Chinese dissidents or Chinese human rights abuses, then  I get front-page coverage.

When anyone talks of their experience in China that does not align  with the narrative coming from overseas, they are criticized and  summarily dismissed as being shills for the Communist Party of China.

I'm not paid by anybody to say the things that I say, said Jerry  Grey, a Briton who has lived and worked in China for nearly 20 years.

When someone tells me something is true, I'll go off to find out  whether or not it is true. Sometimes it is true, sometimes it isn't, but  when it relates to China, it's almost 100 percent untrue.

As a direct witness to China's huge development over the past 20  years, he has seen advances across every measurable metric, including  health, education, environment, crime and the economy.

For Western audiences constantly bombarded with anti-China  misinformation and disinformation, it is easy enough to end up being  suspicious of a country most know little about.

Yan Xuetong, a scholar in international relations at Tsinghua  University in Beijing, laments the growing divide between China and the  public in many other countries.

The awful thing is that it is not only conflict between governments that is increasing but resentment between people as well.

Some Chinese who have had student visa applications rejected,  including Liu, have responded by taking legal action against US  government officials, including the secretary of state and the secretary  of defense.

At the World Peace Forum in Beijing in July, the US Ambassador to  China, Nicholas Burns, when asked whether he was aware of the  consequences of PP10043, did not directly address the concern. Chinese  students were welcome in the US, he said, and only those who broke laws  would be subjected to visa restrictions. The students responded that  Burns' response was inadequate and hypocritical.

That's a very American way to put things, Liu said. They say one  thing and do another. I hope the lawsuit will bring us justice.

Vehicle maker's complaint

Students are not the only ones who feel aggrieved by the way the US  government is treating them. Another group is motor vehicle  manufacturers.

We hope some day when we go to California the Californian government  can treat us the way the Shanghai government did to Tesla, said  Freeman Shen, founder and chief executive of WM Motor, one of the top  makers of electric vehicles in China.

Electrical vehicle manufacturing has been one of the major fields of  competition in China-US relations. The US has accused China of  subsidizing the industry, giving Chinese companies an unfair advantage  over their US counterparts.

When WM Motor was founded in 2015 it received debt investment and  low-interest loans worth 3 billion yuan ($438 million) from the local  government.

But US companies like Tesla received much more support from the government than we did, Shen said.

Tesla has also received billions of dollars from the US Department of Energy, he said, calling the US accusations groundless.

In 2018 Trump instigated a trade war with China, imposing billions of  dollars in tariffs on Chinese products, complaining that for years  China had been taking economic advantage of the US. Three years into the  presidency of Joe Biden, the tariffs, which many economists in both  countries say should be removed, remain in place.

Experts say the tariffs are not only harmful to the global economy  but have led the US away from free trade and toward protectionism.

The US is no longer a free-trade country, Roy said. To support that  contention he points to the launching of a trade war with China by  president Trump, the putting on of the China tariffs, the fact that  President Biden has left those tariffs in place, the fact that we pulled  out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

China's growing presence in high-tech has become a top concern for US  policymakers. In August US lawmakers passed the CHIPS and Science Act,  which gives $52 billion for US companies over five years to grow their  semiconductor manufacturing. In October the US imposed sweeping  restrictions on China, the intention being clear: to cripple its  semiconductor industry and stifle its technological development.

The Biden administration has launched the so-called smart competition with China and has shifted its focus to technology.

They believe that technology will determine whether the US can  maintain the military and economic advantage, vis-a-vis China, said Wu  Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan  University in Shanghai. With growing tensions between the two countries,  experts have called for proper management of all the issues.

Daniel Russel, former US assistant secretary of state for East Asian  and Pacific Affairs, said: There is a real urgency for the US and China  working to heal their bilateral relations overall, and to ensure that  the competition between us, which is inevitable, is the kind of  constructive competition that makes both sides better, better  competitors, and not the destructive rivalry in which each side is  seeking to harm and undermine the other.

Military bases trigger concern

After being stationed on the Japanese island of Okinawa for two  years, Brian Berletic, a former US marine, said he began to understand  that the US military presence was not about bolstering regional  stability but about undermining it.

It was a source of constant tension, Berletic said.

Every year the US pours billions of dollars into building and  maintaining its overseas military bases. But the US military presence at  such bases has triggered protests rather than gratitude.

We're talking rape, murder, assaults, things like that, said Robert  Kajiwara, an activist and writer in Okinawa. US soldiers are infamous  for doing this. They particularly target Okinawan women and children, as  well as the elderly.

More than 30 US military installations have been built in Okinawa,  just a fraction of the hundreds of US military bases that encircle  China. Every year the US military flies thousands of spy planes over the  South China Sea, and naval ships frequent the region with growing  intensity.

The US argues that its military buildup is needed to counter China's alleged threat to the region.

No country will believe that the United States may use its military power to seize territory, Russel said.

The United States is using its military power to maintain international security and stability, especially in Asia.

The number of US surveillance sorties in the South China Sea is  likely to increase compared with 2021, said Wu Shicun, founding  president of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies.

Increased US military activity in the Western Pacific is because it  is concerned about losing its dominance, he said. In 2021 the US flew  over 1,200 spy plane sorties over the region and held 95 US-led military  exercises. The frequency and intensity increase year by year.

In a world atlas published by Rand McNally in 1992, the Nansha  Islands were described as Nansha Island (China), Wu Shicun said. In  addition, the South China Sea islands were described as being part of  Guangdong province, he said.

China's GDP is about 70 percent that of the US despite having the  largest population in the world. However, China's national defense  budget was 1.4 trillion yuan ($204 billion) last year, less than  one-third of the US defense budget.

Wu Xinbo of Fudan University said the US military has already targeted the Chinese military as a major imaginary enemy.

US military spending in 2021 reached $801 billion, and it is expected  to continue to increase this year and in the years ahead. Wu Shicun  said: Who would think of buying weapons from the US if it does not hype  tensions?