Well, thanks be to God that MSNBC's Chuck Todd, who also hosts NBC's "Meet the Press," doesn't have influence with relations between China and the United States, otherwise we may be cowering before the Chinese government. If we aren't already doing so.
I'm sure it's not flattering to be accused of the same tactics that Communist China uses, but Todd used such tactics following the panel discussion on March 21's "Meet the Press" when he gave the following lecture:
Well look, unfortunately, I'm out of time there. And all these elected officials, when they talk about China, the country as a rival and an adversary to this country, be careful of your words. That matters, too. I know there's a lot of fear that, as the rivalry heats up with China, that these hateful incidents will also increase here.
How convenient it was that Todd rushed off with that line as the show closed, before anyone could respond. That was literally the last thing Todd, or anyone else, said before "That's all we have for today. Thank you all for watching."
The discussion in the show's last minutes had been about the rise in attacks against Asian-Americans. The panel included Nevada Independent editor Jon Ralston and Princeton Professor Eddie Glaude.
Before Todd's remarks, Glaude had said in part that:
You know, Eddie said there's a through-line in this program. I think it is that words matter, Chuck. And while this existed long before Donald Trump, the fact that he had an utter lack of empathy during COVID, and that he was so desperate to escape political responsibility, that he continually used phrases like “the China virus” that clearly has exacerbated these problems...
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Basically, it's all Trump's fault.
What's just as astounding, if not more so, than Todd closing the show with such a statement, was Glaude's comments that "that [Asian-American] community has always had to deal with two kinds of contrasting notions: them being viewed as a model minority and being viewed as a permanent foreigner."
Meanwhile, for context, here's what Director of the the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Yang Jiechi had to say during the preliminary meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese officials a few days ago, in Alaska:
On human rights, we hope that the United States will do better on human rights. China has made steady progress in human rights, and the fact is that there are many problems within the United States regarding human rights, which is admitted by the U.S. itself as well. The United States has also said that countries can't rely on force in today's world to resolve the challenges we face. And it is a failure to use various means to topple the so-called authoritarian states. And the challenges facing the United States in human rights are deep-seated. They did not just emerge over the past four years, such as Black Lives Matter. It did not come up only recently. So we do hope that for our two countries, it's important that we manage our respective affairs well instead of deflecting the blame on somebody else in this world.
Certainly, similarities between what the professor and the Chinese official said exist. Is Glaude really so tone deaf that he couldn't or wouldn't think to consider the plight of the Uyghurs? Granted, the Chinese government sees them as far as possible as "a model minority," but they're a minority all the same, just as they're treated as "permanent foreigner[s]. And because they're seen as the very opposite of "a model minority," they're subject to concentration camps, rape, family separation, forced sterilization, forced abortion, and forced use of IUDs, in the name of re-education and to curb extremism, according to the Chinese government.
Attacks on Asian-Americans, as well as any other group of people, ought to be unequivocally condemned, whether it happens home or abroad. Last time I checked, though, we're not putting minorities in concentration camps.
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