Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Malek Dudakov
[REGNUM] The United States is being swept by another wave of spy mania. Previously, all of America was usually on edge because of fears about Soviet or Russian influence. But now China is taking center stage.
 Legitimately so, no matter how it hurts the Russian ego. Still, if must be a relief not to be browbeaten with the endless Russia!Russia!Russia! nonsense.
The escalating Chinagate is replacing Russiagate and identifying new “guilty” parties for meddling in US affairs. Moreover, given the size of the Chinese diaspora, Chinagate could continue indefinitely.
Officially, there are 5.5 million people from China living in the US alone. In terms of size, the Chinese diaspora is the third largest after the Mexican and Indian ones. But the US does not have any serious confrontation with these two countries, although there are contradictions there too.
But US-Chinese relations are quickly descending into a new Cold War. And the first victims are Chinese migrants.
There have been long periods of panic in the history of the United States due to real or imagined foreign agent activity. It is enough to recall several periods of the "red scare" coupled with McCarthyism.
Yes, but the Red Scares all had a legitimate basis, too, as a resident of the former Soviet Union ought to know.
At the same time, Soviet agents really did work on US territory, just as American agents did in socialist countries. But the McCarthyites greatly exaggerated Soviet influence in the US, which, in their opinion, extended to television, Hollywood, and even Congress and the Pentagon.
And so it did. Lots of documentation both in our files and in Russia’s, if it comes to that.
A very bad version of McCarthyism was also attempted after Donald Trump's victory in 2016. Democrats actively accused Russia of interfering in the American elections on his behalf, although no real facts could be found to support this theory. Nevertheless, many were dragged through the courts, some were imprisoned or forced out of the country.
The first wave of anti-Chinese hysteria in the United States emerged back in the 1990s, the period of the apogee of globalization, when the Celestial Empire opened up to America and hundreds of thousands of Chinese moved to the States.
Many of whom were willing or unwilling spies for the CCP. Relatives back home were particularly susceptible to threats, you see.
Scientific and educational cooperation was also active at that time, during which the Chinese were accused of transferring secrets from the USA to their homeland. Congress conducted numerous investigations into espionage, but this did not have much impact on relations between the countries at that time - trade with China was too profitable.
US-China relations reached their peak in the first half of the 2010s, after which they began to rapidly deteriorate. In the Trump era, Washington declared a trade war on China.
At the same time, cooperation programs between American and Chinese universities began to be curtailed. Many Chinese scientists began to be threatened with lawsuits in the United States, and on the strangest grounds, so they had to leave the scientific field or return to China.
Anti-Chinese hysteria has become universal under Joe Biden. In the last year alone, dozens of cases of espionage in favor of China have been opened in the US.
Moreover, everyone is caught in the crossfire. American military personnel are being actively arrested for selling military secrets, including data on the fifth-generation F-22 and F-35 fighters. And the number of such cases is growing rapidly.
The FBI accuses Beijing of setting up unofficial Chinese police stations in Chinatowns across America, including New York City. The Chinese have used these services to solve their document problems back home, but the US feds accuse the Chinese police of spying on dissidents who have moved to the US.
True, the dissidents themselves are now also in the risk zone. This status is no longer a salvation: as we know, they beat you not by your passport. Thus, one of the participants in the 1989 Tiananmen riots who took refuge in the US is now also accused of spying for China. Simply because he went there several times in recent years.
And if you are of Chinese descent, then American law enforcement immediately sees you as a potential agent of the PRC.
Even unexpected people began to come under attack.
In New York, the governor's chief of staff, Linda Sun, was arrested. She was closely connected to both the previous governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, and the current one, Kathy Hochul. Sun graduated from the prestigious Columbia University and built a successful career in the camp of American Democrats. But now they've got their hands on her, too.
Song is accused of lobbying for China's interests, as she allegedly prevented Taiwanese politicians and diplomats from meeting with New York City officials. At the same time, Song sought to suppress criticism of China at the state level. And her husband, who is also under investigation, purchased Chinese masks and ventilators during the pandemic.
This is an important signal for the Chinese diaspora - no one is protected from judicial pressure and persecution, even those who have acquired connections and made a successful political career. Literally anyone can fall under this roller - if there is a person, an article, as we know, will be found.
At the same time, Chinese agents are probably really present in the US, just as American agents are in China. But - as was the case during the McCarthy era - their influence is greatly exaggerated in the anti-Chinese fervor.
There are even some completely absurd stories where Chinese tourists are accused of spying based solely on the fact that they might have been near some objects that are sensitive to US security.
In this regard, the Americans are especially concerned about their military bases.
In the last few years, the US has been actively promoting a conspiracy theory that Chinese investors are specifically buying up farmland around American bases to spy on them. As a result, some states have begun to prohibit foreigners from “unfriendly” countries from buying real estate and land.
A few years ago, all of America was in an uproar over Chinese meteorological balloons that appeared in the skies over the United States. They were called "spy balloons" that were supposedly launched specifically to spy on nuclear missile launch silos.
Now this story has died down somewhat, but another conspiracy horror story has appeared: “spy balls” have been replaced by “spy taps.”
The fact is that 80% of port cranes in the US are made in China and run on their own software. And now Washington is scared that these cranes can be used for surveillance.
And some say it's even worse: There's a risk of a cyberattack paralyzing all U.S. ports and causing logistical chaos. So the White House is rushing to impose a 25% tariff on Chinese crane imports.
And since there is no alternative to them, the Americans themselves are cutting off one of the branches on which their economy rests.
There are no prospects for a decrease in the level of anti-Chinese hysteria. The media campaign criticizing the Celestial Empire is bearing fruit - more than 80% of Americans have a negative attitude towards China.
Trump and the Republicans, who see China as the main enemy of the United States in the 21st century, are playing especially actively in this field. If Trump wins the presidential election, American pressure on China will increase sharply on all fronts.
However, if Trump's opponent Kamala Harris succeeds, the general anti-Chinese sentiment will also not go away.
Her running mate, vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, now the governor of Minnesota, is hard-pressed to justify his long-standing ties to China. He has visited the Middle Kingdom more than 30 times, even spending his honeymoon there.
For any weakness in relations with Beijing, Republicans will brand Harris and Walz "Chinese agents." So the current Cold War will inevitably continue.
For members of the Chinese diaspora, this means an ever-increasing risk that they will one day find themselves in the same situation as the Japanese, who were once interned and sent to labor camps solely on the basis of their nationality.
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