US media follows orientalist tradition of not defining China as it actually is, but rather in its perceived relation to the West, so that China never fully exists on its own terms, but is instead held up as a foil to Western civilizational superiority 1/

This orientalist representation operates on two axes, the political & the cultural:

political: as a gov’t, China is imagined as an authoritarian regime, a human rights disaster, lying/deceitful, a political crisis to be solved thru implementation of West. liberal democracy 2/

Cultural: as a people, China is imagined as morally inferior, a “backwards” civilization, barbaric, filthy, diseased, so cruel that they will eat anything that moves 3/

The underlying assumption is that China will impose its backward civilization and totalitarian regime onto the US unless aggressively stopped.

To blunt China’s rise is to save Western civilization. 4/

This type of representation is not unique to China—this is also how we understand the Middle East and Iran.

Anyway said this on the panel last night, but read Said’s Orientalism!!!
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