Opinion | America is afraid of Confucius

By Philip Yeung, university teacher

PKY480@gmail.com

Who is afraid of Confucius? America, that's who. After more than 25 centuries, the ghost of Confucius now haunts the US Congress. In their latest sitting, US lawmakers have banned Confucius Institutes outright. Any university that dares to host them faces loss of federal funding. We know American politicians are allergic to communism. I didn't know that they are allergic to Confucianism too. These days, American insecurity sees a communist under every bed.

In the US, Confucius has become a persona non grata, or worse, a closet communist. Confucius Institutes are classified as "foreign missions" with a dodgy purpose. At their height, there were about one hundred such institutes in the US. Now there are fewer than five. Most have been shuttered under pressure. What is happening here? America seems to have caught an incurable disease, Confucianitis, part of its China lunacy syndrome. Confucius has been asleep for two and a half millennia. All of a sudden, he wakes up as an immigrant in America and in no time is labeled a menace to democracy. America doesn't see him as a sage or teacher. He is a subversive in disguise. He is as welcome as an illegal immigrant and now faces deportation back to his native Shandong province. His Analects are treated as a bible for revolutionaries. His teachings about common prosperity are deemed to subvert American values. His ghostly presence has infected US politicians with the China contagion, whose symptoms range from racism, and paranoia, to a toxic tongue.

America is regressing back to the dark days of the McCarthy era. Except this time, it covers all things Chinese, not just people, but products too. Americans are spooked by the sight of Chinese-made sparkling electric vehicles, batteries and drones. You see, in their eyes, the Chinese are not supposed to be wizards of technology. White supremacists want to consign them back to Chinese take-outs and laundries.

America wants to return to the time when pig-tailed Chinese men served wonton soup, and chop suey and ran "no tickee, no washee" laundries, dwelling at the margins of American society. If they dare to step out of these lowly trades, they risk being slapped down and chained up.

I am amazed at how little-hearted big America has become. Remember the Paris peace talks over Vietnam? US diplomats were squabbling for a long time about the shape of the negotiating table. Now, their petty politicians have blacklisted all things Chinese. What a pathetic country! If this can happen to harmless Confucius, it can happen to anybody!

Is there no hope for China in America? Normal, rational dialogue is now virtually impossible between the two countries. What else is left? Perhaps the Chinese can try one last trick: Kim Kardashian. Yes, Kim Kardashian, America's no. 1 sex symbol. China should lose no time in engaging her services as their lobbyist-at-large to seduce US congressmen into loving China and Confucius. If Kardashian, with her big boobs and full lips, can't do it, nobody else can. If high-minded Confucius doesn't sell, perhaps sex-loaded Kardashian will. She would be doing world peace a big favor. The only language horny congress members who get high on hating China understand is perky breasts and big bottoms. That's the extent of their limited intelligence. That's what consumes their tiny brains. There is nothing much between their ears but their male hormones.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

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