Modern Sinophobia is not so much based on the fear of a Communist State as it is a series of prevailing cultural discourses, that assumes Asian culture is backwards, deceitful, brutal and predatory. These ideas are applied more frequently to China because of geopolitical anxiety.

Think about it like this, Western cultural discourse has long portrayed Chinese culture as inherently violent, cold, mysterious and deceitful in a business sense throughout a variety of popular media.

To start giving some discursive examples of this, I am going to quote a family guy scene in how it presents a Chinese character in a given episode (and you will know this one most likely)

This Chinese man "Mr Washy Washy" is portrayed in a stereotypical way as violent, harsh, brutish and also stingy "every bing bong 2 cents!" Now I believe this cultural imagery tells us more about American conceptions of China than a Communist Party does, which is added to the mix

Now let's look at this clip from the Simpsons especially relevant due to the virus. Although it is of course about Japan, not China, it nevertheless prolongs the same Asian cultural discourses which add to prevailing Sinophobia.

What do we learn from the Simpsons clip? It's about Japan, but it reflects a state of mind that:

1) Cheap useless goods are made in Asia and shipped to the US

2) Flu viruses are an Asian thing that don't belong in America

3) Asian work culture is brutal and dishonest.

Another example of American sinophobic discourse is found in the 2000 movie "Dude where's my car?" where the main characters attempt to order a drive thru Chinese much to their frustrations.

What is the joke of course about this scene? Again it reflects a prevailing belief that Chinese people have a cold, unpleasant and brutish way of communication, as well as being culturally out of touch. Joke of course the restaurant is called "还有呢"

Now I want you to think about the ideas advocated in these examples and how they build into broader political ideas about China such as the following:

"China cheats"
"China steals"
"China lies"

These aren't as much antiCCP statements as they are thriving on cultural stereotypes