The New Yorker executive order Michael Luo recently came out with a book chronicling the history of Chinese-Americans, and on Monday, he went on PBS’s Amanpour and Company to talk about it. During his discussion with Walter Isaacson, Luo would warn that talking about China as a threat in a foreign policy context could lead to the growth of “racial suspicion.”
Isaacson asked, “One of the political issues today involves China in a geopolitical sense, a strategic sense, a competition with China, fights with China over everything from chips and tariffs and things like that. Is that at all connected to the anti-immigrant sentiments that you may have felt on the Upper East Side from that racist woman?”
Luo tried to claim it was, “I mean, I think so. So, the interesting thing is in this history that I write about, which is centered on the late 19th century and early 20th century, China was incredibly weak. It was torn by war, internecine warfare. It was kind of humiliated with the Western powers.”
Of course, that is rather silly. Nobody claims that the reason why the U.S. opposes Iranian nuclear weapons is because of anti-immigrant and anti-Persian bigotry or that the reason why we have heavy sanctions on Russia is because of some racist dislike of Slavic people.
Nevertheless, Luo rolled on and appeared to dismiss concerns that China is to blame for COVID, “Today, obviously, China is an economic, technological, military superpower, and we're in this competition with China for dominance. And I think when you—the—during the pandemic, when there was this—the blame of China for COVID led to this outbreak in reports of violence against Asians. Obviously, that moment has subsided.”
Whether one subscribes to the lab leak or wet market thesis, it is hard to deny that the Chinese Communist Party, like all communist parties, was more interested in reputation preservation than accountability. Still, Luo rolled, “But the thing that I'm afraid of at this moment, and that what I worry about in the trajectory of the Asian-Americans and their experience in America is, yes, like every time—right now it's kind of in vogue for politicians of both parties, Democrats and Republicans, to be bellicose in their language about China. And I think there are legitimate reasons, you know, for that. But every time I hear that kind of language, I feel the tender of racial suspicion growing.”
That doesn’t make any sense. Luo admits there are real “legitimate reasons” to be concerned about China, but then he immediately shames people for talking about them. Luo concluded, “And so, the thing I—a lot of people have asked me about—am I optimistic? And I have to be optimistic because, like, that's the story of America. That's the story of this kind of push and pull that you've talked about. But I'm worried.”
Obviously, people like the woman who was horrible to Luo should be condemned for not being able to see the difference between China’s corrupt, dictatorial, and hostile foreign government and its diaspora. But China is a national security threat to the United States on a level that probably exceeds the Soviet Union, so Luo’s attempt to draw a line from policy suggestions to counter that to racism is not just dishonest race hustling that projects isolated incidents onto the whole country; if it convinces people to water down their foreign policy concerns and possible solutions, it is a threat to national security as well.
Here is a transcript for the June 2 show:
PBS Amanpour and Company
6/2/2025
WALTER ISAACSON: One of the political issues today involves China in a geopolitical sense, a strategic sense, a competition with China, fights with China over everything from chips and tariffs and things like that. Is that at all connected to the anti-immigrant sentiments that you may have felt on the Upper East Side from that racist woman?
MICHAEL LUO: I mean, I think so. So, the interesting thing is in this history that I write about, which is centered on the late 19th century and early 20th century, China was incredibly weak. It was torn by war, internecine warfare. It was kind of humiliated with the Western powers.
Today, obviously, China is an economic, technological, military superpower, and we're in this competition with China for dominance. And I think when you — the — during the pandemic, when there was this — the blame of China for COVID led to this outbreak in reports of violence against Asians. Obviously, that moment has subsided. But the thing that I'm afraid of at this moment, and that what I worry about in the trajectory of the Asian-Americans and their experience in America is, yes, like every time — right now it's kind of in vogue for politicians of both parties, Democrats and Republicans, to be bellicose in their language about China. And I think there are legitimate reasons, you know, for that. But every time I hear that kind of language, I feel the tender of racial suspicion growing.
And so, the thing I — a lot of people have asked me about — am I optimistic? And I have to be optimistic because, like, that's the story of America. That's the story of this kind of push and pull that you've talked about. But I'm worried.