Actually, I'm not sure I should give these hecklers the benefit of the doubt by automatically referring to them as useful idiots – i.e., fools who are unwittingly doing the bidding of China's Communist regime. There's a chance that such people could be paid agents of the CCP, which very actively sought to weaponize America's woke culture during the pandemic, eagerly fueling the idiotic left-wing narrative that criticisms of the government in Beijing were "dangerous" catalysts of "racism" and anti-Asian hate. So much of the cancel mob's overall goal is to disqualify opinions and people by simply declaring them problematically unacceptable, preemptively disqualifying any number of points that might be uncomfortable or inconvenient, avoiding the need to attempt to refute them on substance. I suspect that effect accounts for much of the motivation behind the dishonest conflation of anti-CCP critiques and supposed bigotry and xenophobia.
And it's how we end up with disgraceful episodes playing out at American events and universities, which are music to Chairman Xi's ears. Relatedly, this was the spectacle at this week's inaugural meeting of the new bipartisan House Select Committee on combatting China's influence:
WATCH: "China is not our enemy."
— Bloomberg Politics (@bpolitics) March 1, 2023
Protestors hold up signs during the testimony of former President Donald Trump's national security advisor H.R. McMaster, at the first hearing of the new House of Representatives Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party pic.twitter.com/846W8JbZgl
It goes without saying that if demonstrators disrupted a CCP proceeding like this, their fates would be far darker than whatever slap on the wrist these unserious people received, which is as it should be. Ours is a free society in which dissent is protected. Theirs is not. Ours is superior. But the upside-down "Stop Asian Hate" sign and banal sloganeering (maybe they really were just useful idiots) is a tidy encapsulation of how shallow and blinkered this particular worldview is. The victims of the CCP, overwhelmingly, are Asians. They're Asian Muslims forced into reeducation camps as part of an active genocide. They're jailed journalists or freedom advocates in Hong Kong. They're persecuted Christians, born and raised inside China. They're oppressed Tibetans. They're residents of Shanghai and other major cities suffering immensely under COVID lockdowns (and whistleblowers who were harshly punished for telling disallowed truths about the pandemic, which likely started in a CCP lab). They're Indian soldiers killed in illegitimate border skirmishes. They're Chinese nationals abroad harassed and threatened by the regime's global tentacles. They're the targets of widespread and aggressive religious and ethnic bigotry inside China.
Do Westerners shrieking about the CCP not being our enemy not care about these people? Do they have anything to say about the "Asian hate" being perpetrated by the regime? The pitiful answer to both questions is "no." They care about a reductive and stupid view of the world under which Western (white) oppressors are the bad guys, no matter what. And Western governments noticing any number of abominations carried out by other regimes is "war mongering." It's brain dead, morally-bankrupt stuff, but it has increasing cachet in certain quarters. Thankfully, the committee isn't concerning itself with the noise, and appears to be populated with relatively serious people from both sides of the aisle:
A new House committee focused on China held its first hearing Tuesday, sketching out the threat it says Beijing poses to U.S. interests and values and calling for a concerted U.S. government response. “We may call this a ‘strategic competition,’” said Rep. Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.) chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, opening the hearing. “But this is not a polite tennis match. This is an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century, and the most fundamental freedoms are at stake.” The committee heard testimony from former national security officials, a Chinese democracy activist and a representative of a U.S. manufacturing association. Their testimony ranged widely—from repression of human rights to China’s military and economic coercion against its neighbors... Mr. Gallagher and the top committee Democrat Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois are pledging to overcome divisions, though they recognize that might not extend to every issue. Republicans have criticized the Biden administration for not taking a harder line with Beijing. Political unity is especially needed because the Chinese leadership believes the divisions in America “prevent us from making progress,” said Mr. Krishnamoorthi.
I enjoyed this passage from the Journal story:
Chinese diplomats have raised concerns with U.S. officials about the committee, worrying that its spotlight on China will generate negative headlines, adding to tensions between the governments. U.S.-China relations, strained in recent years over Taiwan, technology, human rights and a global rivalry for influence, have plummeted in recent weeks over a suspected Chinese spy balloon, China’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine and fresh U.S. assessments that Covid-19 may have leaked from a Chinese laboratory.
Oh, is that all? Actually, it's not, since the genocide wasn't explicitly mentioned. But of course, Chinese diplomats are "raising concerns" about the committee's capacity for generating negative headlines. It's not the fault of the US government for noticing things that the CCP is doing that would inevitably earn negative headlines. If they are upset about the headlines, they can change their conduct. I'll leave you with a link to the full video of the first meeting of this new and panel. Let's hope it can remain sober-minded and cross-partisan. It's important.