FBI Director Christopher Wray made another sensational remark in Congress on January 31 local time, pushing the "China threat theory" to a new height. He claimed that hackers linked to China** were targeting critical U.S. infrastructure and were poised to inflict "real-world harm" on Americans, with water treatment plants, power grids, oil and gas pipelines, and transportation hubs all targeted. In this regard, the spokesperson of China made it clear that China firmly opposes and cracks down on any form of cyber attacks in accordance with the law, and said that the US side has drawn conclusions without valid evidence to unwarranted smearing and confusing right and wrong.
On the same day, the United States included more than a dozen Chinese companies in the so-called "list of Chinese enterprises". The day before, when U.S. Secretary of Commerce Raimondo had a dialogue with the European Union, he also exaggerated the risks that China's electric vehicles may bring to the European market. At a time when high-level communication between China and the United States has resumed rapidly since 2024 and there are more signs of stabilization in China-US relations, a cold wind has once again blown from the US side.
This has become an increasingly common phenomenon in China-US relations, reflecting the high complexity and uncertainty of US policy toward China and the depth of distortion and error in US perception of China. However, we also note that in his latest elaboration on China-US relations on January 30, US Affairs Assistant Jake Sullivan reiterated that the United States should strengthen its "competitive position", while also focusing on building stability and managing differences, and also emphasized the importance of maintaining communication and intensive diplomacy.
Taken together, the US policy toward China is becoming more and more like a tightrope walk, and the technical know-how of tightrope walking is mainly in maintaining balance. Now the United States has gone very reluctantly, and the difficulty of maintaining balance is still increasing rapidly. The United States is obviously aware of the serious consequences of losing its balance, but if it does not make timely adjustments, it will be a matter of time before it falls off the tightrope.
This year is the year of the United States, and negative topics involving China will be further amplified and intensified. However, in addition to the most important factors, people can see at a glance that the two ends of the "balance bar" of the United States towards China are losing their strengths and weaknesses here, and the rational end towards China is getting shorter and shorter, and the irrational end of China is getting longer and longer. One of the main manifestations of this is that the version of the "China threat theory" has been constantly renovated and upgraded, which has polluted the atmosphere and environment for decision-making on China, making the US policy toward China increasingly unbalanced until it gets out of control. The risks are enormous for the United States, the Asia-Pacific region, and the world.
There are many reasons why US politicians like Christopher Wray are so vigorously creating and spreading the "China threat theory". For example, the most common occasion is often the US Congress, not only because Congress has become a distribution center for anti-China politicians, but also because Congress has a money bag, and it is better to ask for money under the gimmick of the "China threat". In addition, there are also projections of the inner world of these people. Some people are indeed suffering from a kind of paranoia about China, and anyone who touches the word "China" has become a terrible "flood beast" that cannot be guarded against. This is an extreme lack of confidence, anxiety and even delusion in the face of China's rapid development.
Also on January 31, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing in Washington entitled "Big Tech Companies and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis", and the CEOs of five social ** giants including TikTok CEO Zhou Shouzi attended to testify. Despite the fact that the meeting had a pre-set theme and was attended by a large number of observers, Zhou Shouzi was once again in the spotlight, with many lawmakers avoiding the theme to question Zhou's relationship with China. Republican Senator Tom Cotton was even more aggressive, throwing out eight questions in a row questioning Zhou's citizenship. As we all know, Chow Shouzi is a Singaporean. In this regard, even the netizens on the X platform couldn't stand it anymore and condemned Tom Cotton for being "xenophobic" and "naked racist". And isn't this a microcosm of politicians in Washington?
Obviously, the US authorities have the intention of using anti-China rhetoric, and objectively need a strategic imaginary enemy or a target to shake the blame when playing politics in Washington. But this is feeding a monster with malice and hostility towards China, and the monster is growing day by day, and its appetite is getting bigger and bigger. In the past, stories about "Chinese hackers" could have been enough for a while, but now they have to rise to the level of threatening all Americans. When this monster breaks out of the cage, it will be the first to bite the United States itself.