America's Fake 'China Invasion' Political Ads

By Stan Abrams

Here’s the lowdown on one political advertisement that has been making the news because of its blatant China bashing and fear mongering. It is also the latest example of what I’m calling China Threat 2.0, using China to scare up support for one’s pet policy initiative. In the case of this ad, issued by Nevada Republican Mark Amodei, it’s all about government spending (and borrowing).

The ad takes a page from the infamous “Chinese Professor ad” that we grew to love during the last big political fight, presented as a fake news account of a future where China has invaded the U.S., presumably as a foreclosure move. The ad includes images of the PLA marching in front of the U.S. Capitol building. The narrator is a Chinese news reader/anchor:

“Once upon a time, America became its own worst enemy,” says the narrator. “When all its borrowed money ran out, they kept spending. Out of control, their President Obama just kept raising the debt limit, and their independence became a new dependence. As their debt grew, our fortune grew. And that’s how our great empire rose again.”

Marvelous. To make it even better, the Asian narrator’s English is heavily accented. (To me, it sounds sort of clipped, a la Southeast Asia, but I suppose it could be somewhere in HK/PRC.) [EconMatters Note: It sounded like PRC.]

Is the ad racist? A lot of folks have come out and made that accusation. It’s certainly nasty and stupid, and definitely makes China (and Chinese people, to a lesser extent) look bad, but using an Asian woman with a heavy accent is a fairly benign tactic, as far as these things go.

Not that Amodei and his team give a crap about the folks who have been offended by the advertisement. After being called out by one Asian-American organization, a person with the Amodei campaign issued this thoughtful and sensitive comment:

Not surprised Democrats don’t want to respond to the substance of the ad.

Whether it’s racist or not, the ad certainly plays into American xenophobic tendencies, which are making the rounds in Republican circles these days. According to the Las Vegas Sun:

[T]he ad echoes a common refrain at Republican gatherings — that Americans could soon be speaking Chinese if the United States doesn’t address the debt problem.

Only a politician could make speaking a foreign language into an insult. Then again, my Chinese is so bad it’s an insult to the language.

But the “Chinese invasion ad” saga in Nevada is even more entertaining when one factors in tourist and trade revenue from China:

That concern is real, said Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, who has spent considerable energy developing Nevada’s Chinese tourism market.

Krolicki described the relationship with China as important and delicate. He noted the value of Nevada’s exports to China has grown to $456 million from $13.6 million in the past decade.

One economic development official, who didn’t want to publicly criticize Amodei, said he has been contacted by Chinese consulate officials who were irritated by the ad.

“I think they feel like ‘why do you even have to use us in some kind of pejorative way to make a message,’” the official said. “This ad makes you have to go through the calculation of ‘are we being racist or beating up on the horrible financial decisions made in Washington D.C.?’

Nevada gets Chinese tourists? Must be enthusiasts of desert flora and fauna. Nothing much else to see there. [EconMatters Note: Vegas, Baby!]

You gotta feel sorry for that poor Nevada state official who got the call from a Chinese consular official, the latter most likely confused, pissed off and worried that he’ll have to cancel his next trip to Vegas.

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