Wild and egregious stuff here, from an erstwhile member of The New York Times editorial board, perhaps best known for her...interesting views on racial matters (my take on the ensuing firestorm was critical, but anti-cancellation).
In what could charitably be described as a "think piece" (I won't be linking to it), Sarah Jeong wrote the following paragraphs over the weekend, which are stunningly morally bereft:
This wins the prize for false equivalence of the decade. pic.twitter.com/vwsmpJBZG9
— Conor Friedersdorf (@conor64) August 7, 2020
On one hand, China is engaged in ethnic cleansing and running concentration camps. On the other hand, America detains illegal immigrants. On one hand, China is a Communist dictatorship where dissidents vanish overnight. On the other hand, Donald Trump sent a stupid tweet that asked a trolling question about the possibility of a delayed election, which was promptly and universally rejected, even by members of his own party. On one hand, China brutally represses anyone who opposes the regime. On the other hand, American federal law enforcement made lawful arrests of violent rioters who'd repeatedly attempted to burn down a court house. Who can really say which country is worse? "I can’t imagine publishing these paragraphs let alone being proud of them," quips another journalist. Unfortunately, America-critical whataboutism seems to be a go-to move for Beijing apologists or people desperate to deflect attention away from the Chinese Communist Party's horrors. Here's yet another NBA hack running interference for China:
We committed genocide against Native Americans. We have enslaved, lynched, segregated and incarcerated blacks over 400 years. Women couldn’t vote for 140 years. Using abuses elsewhere to try to distract from our own poor record on human rights is dishonest https://t.co/3TyPJrbZPA
— Stan Van Gundy (@realStanVG) August 6, 2020
I wonder how Stan’s galaxy brain would grapple with the question of whether Americans were right to fight the Nazis, or express horror at the Holocaust. Our major civil rights laws were still years away at the time, after all. Too flawed to ‘cast stones’ or whatever?
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 7, 2020
Absolutely embarrassing. Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to get tough on China and its various puppets, which is the correct and needed course of action, given additional and ongoing abuses:
Hong Kong’s national security law is working exactly as the CCP intended—to crush political dissent anywhere in the world and unjustly imprison pro-democracy leaders like Jimmy Lai. The world needs to wake up to the threat of China. https://t.co/nwSYJPyRYk
— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) August 10, 2020
'The sanctions are being carried out under an executive order President Donald Trump signed last month seeking to punish China for its moves against dissent in Hong Kong.' https://t.co/MyLGarmWCn via @bpolitics
— Andrew deGrandpre (@adegrandpre) August 7, 2020
I'll leave you with this. Per a US intelligence assessment of our adversary's electoral rooting interests, Moscow prefers Trump, while Beijing and Tehran prefer Biden:
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New statement from top US counterintelligence official. Russia wants Biden to lose, China wants Trump to lose, Iran wants Trump to lose pic.twitter.com/SnABOhzdk5
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 7, 2020
For what it's worth, China sanctioned a number of US Senators on Monday, including Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Josh Hawley, Pat Toomey and Tom Cotton (among other individuals and organizations).
