Do Americans look at China through propagated lenses?
By: Riley Duignan
In the United States, it’s very common to see mockery of Asian, and often primarily Chinese groups. With anti-chinese rhetorics that are casually said, and are still common. People pull back their eyes to make them more narrow to mock the shape of asian eyes, or the slur “Ching chong” and other variations that english speakers use to mock chinese language. Continuous use of stereotypes, the anti-chinese rhetoric during covid, and the constant “China is communist, communism bad” idea that we’ve always been strictly told. But is the United States’ idea of China true or propagated and what is causing this casual racism?
Why is the U.S. known for their anti-chinese sentiments?
In the U.S., the Anti-Chinese sentiment truly began to grow in the 1850s and on, as many Chinese immigrants came to the U.S during the industrial revolution and the Gold Rush (California). Many Chinese immigrants left China because of economic desperation, various famines, and civil wars. Chinese immigrants were a primary part of the production of the transcontinental railroad and various factory jobs. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed that denied current Chinese residents in the U.S. their citizenship, and also banned laborers from coming into the U.S. for around 10 years. It denied citizenship and humanity to Chinese residents and immigrants. The act was only fully repealed in 1943.
An anti-chinese advertisement called “The Magic Washer” Made in 1886 depicts Uncle Sam kicking a Chinese immigrant out of the country. The Chinese man is depicted in an extremely stereotypical way, his face is extremely round, with very slanted eyes, and a hairstyle called a “Queue”, that was worn often by men in the Qing Dynasty, as well as a Tangzhuang Jacket. Numerous Chinese immigrants are depicted crawling on the ground, in a “scurrying” pose, depicting them as weak, fearful, and “less than”. This is one of many examples of dehumanization of Chinese immigrants during the 19th and 20th century U.S.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, China was not communist. But they were an agrarian based society. Their economy was weak, and so was their politics. There were numerous civil wars, they were taken over by foreign imperialism, and overall underdeveloped. On October 1, 1949 China declared themselves a communist republic. The U.S. was strongly against communism, as seen in the Cold war, WWII, and the closely following Vietnam war. The U.S. has fought to keep communism out of America, with China declaring themselves communist, it began a difficult and inconsistent relationship between the two countries.
What is communism?
The theory of communism is a good one to most, it aims to end class warfare and inequality, and make the country a classless and stateless society. Aiming to eliminate private property ownership, and profit with public ownership, prioritizing production and distribution. But communism often doesn’t work out, and instead results in an authoritarian and totalitarian control. Most of the time it leads to one party that is in control of the whole country, and this leads to controlled speech freedom, and lack of political change.
This is what is happening with China, as most classify China as authoritarian and one party-led country. The CCP (China Communist Party) is known for their strict media censorship, social limitations, oppressive ethnic camps, and lack of political party opposition due to their full control. They are known for heavily abusing their military control for political and social repression of oppositionists. So much so, an incident in 1985, Beijing spread around the world, with the U.S. often using it as an example of the CCP’s civilian repression. The “Tank Man” is an unidentified man who stood in front of 4, Type 59 tanks in protest of China’s clearing of pro-democratic protests. We do not know the identity of him, nor know what happened to him after this encounter, but this incident blew up around the world, and became subject to censorship in China, as the government tries to erase the photo from Chinese media.
Because of China’s communist status, China has never really been depicted kindly in the U.S., from racist depictions in 19th and 20th century propaganda, to their country’s status as communist. But is the U.S. teaching biased lessons about China?
First lets dissect bias, what counts as bias in the media? A definition of media bias by pressbooks.pub defines it as “– the unjust favoritism and reporting of a certain ideas or standpoint.” This could be positive or negative, bias is just the favoritism of specific ideas over others. It’s often the glorification of one thing, or the exact opposite. This causes very extreme beliefs among audiences.
A Pew Research Center study showed that as of April 2025, 77% of Americans have unfavorable views of China. And within this, 33% of Americans have a “very unfavorable” idea of China. But, this has shockingly decreased from years prior. With around 81% of Americans holding unfavorable views of China in 2024, and around 43% of them holding “Very unfavorable” views of China. This decrease is likely attributed to a multitude of things within the U.S. Older generations (65 and older) are more likely to see China as an enemy of the U.S (around 47%), and 70%+ see China as a threat to the U.S., and younger generations (18-29) are less likely to see China as an enemy of the U.S. (around 19%). Older generations often hold cold and anti-china sentiments due to hard cold war ideologies and targeted propaganda against china during the mid and late 1900s.
The issue may not be that news is propagated, but instead that it is heavily negative. Because of this, Americans often group Chinese citizens and people into a group with Chinese politics, which are two different groups. A USC Dornsife study showed that when people were directly asked, over 90% agreed with the CCP and President Xi Jinping. But when using list methods that allow for anonymity were used to interview, agreement went down by over 30%. Some studies show that agreement with the Chinese government among Chinese citizens is as low as 50%. There are significant ties between Chinese citizens’ economic class and education level, and their agreement with the Chinese government. But, this does not confirm whether bias comes from education and whether education is strongly controlled within China.
China as a country is not all negative either, there are good and bad aspects like every country. And as the U.S. itself falls into a politically tense and controversial era, many young Americans reflect among information about China and the United States, and as numerous American owned apps are being accused of censorship of American media, as well as multiple debacles with Trump’s accusation of defamation against left-winged journalists; its about time the United States reflects on their own controversies.
Someone’s birth country, or ethnicity is never a justification for racism, exclusion, or mockery. Nor are many citizens at fault or in support of a controversial government. Assuming one leans left, would it be fair for them to be blamed for high international tariffs, tensions, and media censorship coming from the Trump Administration in 2026? Obviously not, many are opposed to such issues that Trump is introducing (again) to the United States. That’s a large generalization isn’t it? So why generalize a whole other group if that wouldn’t be an accurate depiction of you either?
Consuming media that is not leaning towards beliefs of one political party, and instead is solely based on facts instead of a writer’s emotions is the best way to stay unbiased. Understanding there are good and bad sides of countries, and consuming diverse news or opinions about something can limit misunderstandings and misguidance. This applies to every issue, not just country politics!
Remember to always do your research!!!
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/communism
https://freedomhouse.org/country/china#:~:text=China’s%20authoritarian%20regime%20has%20become%20increasingly%20repressive,practice%2C%20universities%2C%20businesses%2C%20and%20civil%20society%20associations.
https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/JIPA/Display/Article/3587653/chinas-authoritarian-grip-how-china-reinforces-social-control-cultivates-a-clim/
https://medium.com/@mattflorence/china-before-and-after-the-communist-revolution-f4aca7504641
https://us.china-embassy.gov.cn/eng/zgyw/202112/t20211204_10462468.htm#:~:text=On%20October%201%2C%201949%2C%20the%20People’s%20Republic,several%20thousand%20years%2C%20to%20a%20people’s%20democracy.
https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/chinese-exclusion-act
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/chinese-immigration
https://www.history.com/articles/chinese-exclusion-act-1882
https://pluralism.org/discrimination-and-exclusion
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/the-chinese-civil-war/
Most Americans Have ‘Cold’ Views of China. Here’s What They Think About China, In Their Own Words
When Chinese citizens are surveyed anonymously, support for party and government plummets