The Spin
Anti-China narrative
The Chinese communist party has crushed Hong Kong's democracy, created Orwellian surveillance systems, and perpetrated human rights abuses including Uyghur genocide. The PRC is a security threat to every democratic, freedom-loving country: it seeks to dominate the world through military aggression, economic and technological espionage, and corruption of foreign politicians to spread its dystopian authoritarian model across the globe. The United States must counter these threats and contain China.
Pro-China narrative
The United States is trying to harm China's economy, discredit it, and draw it into regional conflicts. U.S. talk of democracy and human rights are mere excuses for this since it supports many non-democratic governments. The real reason is that Washington fears losing its hegemony and wants to distract from domestic problems by scapegoating China. Chinese weakness let Western colonialists humiliate it in the 1800s, and China won't make that mistake again.
Cynical narrative
All this talk about defeating China is irrelevant, as a conflict wouldn't benefit either side. In fact, U.S. policies to counter the PRC increasingly expose the fact that the American political establishment is seeking to follow the Chinese model, not promote U.S. values.
