By Darius
In recent days, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance's derogatory remarks referring to the Chinese people as "Chinese peasants" have sparked widespread outrage. Some media outlets have pointed out that such discourteous behavior brings shame to the United States.
From my perspective, this reflects the resurgence of a deep-seated American malady after a century of dormancy. This toxic wave of discrimination, steeped in arrogance and prejudice, has poisoned minds from the very beginning, and shaking off this venomous mindset is no easy task.
In the past, discrimination targeted race, gender, and even profession. Today, this poison has seeped into relations between nations. There are likely many who share Vance's views—he is merely the most vocal in today's far-right wave, a so-called "early bird" of this movement. A nation that once fought its way out of colonial shadows and shattered the chains of slavery with blood and tears has now, due to the emotional provocations of a few ambitious politicians, grown narrow-minded. It seeks to preserve its status by imposing excessive tariffs and belittling other nations—a lamentable turn of events.
The renowned Chinese poet Zang Kejia once wrote, "Life is an eternal pursuit of fleeting light, but those who mistake that light for illusion sink into an abyss of misery."
These politicians are now trapped in that abyss. They treat the oath of their national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, as empty words. The freedom they preach exists only within their borders; the courage they claim manifests only when their nation stands as the world's dominant power. This so-called "beacon of the world" no longer seeks to illuminate others—and thus, it no longer deserves this title.
In Wong Kar-wai's film The Grandmaster, the northern martial arts master Gong Yutian imparts a lesson to his daughter: "If a person cannot bear to see others succeed or excel, they lack the heart to accept others. The threshold of our Gong family is high, but we do not harbor petty minds."
So, who is the petty mind that cannot bear to see others succeed?
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