Endless negative news stories and opinion pieces about how bad China is in almost every way are bound to shape public perception.

Almost nine in 10 Americans (89 per cent) consider China a competitor or enemy, rather than a partner, according to the authoritative Pew Research.

Commenting, Winston Lord, a US ambassador to China in the 1980s, said Beijing only had itself to blame.

The shift is caused by Chinas actions under Xi [Jinping], the repression at home, the more aggressive approach abroad and intrusions in societies, including our own, Lord said. It has turned off not only Americans, but also Europeans and Australians.

Lord was once one of Henry Kissingers bright young proteges. There is no dispute that he understands China-US relations better than most. He may have half a point. But there is also the other half, which is that if you are bombarded with negative stories about a country, day in and day out, year after year, to an absurd degree by the mainstream media, you too would think that country is just about the worst on Earth.

I was inspired to write this column by an alternative take, How the threat of China was made in the USA, from AJ+, a web channel of Al-Jazeera, which helps explain why the perception China is bad, period! is so widespread. Just consider some of the endless headlines cited in the news clip. They amount to subgenres of China news and analysis, with their own templates and preset assumptions and narratives; you just need to slot in different names for people and countries, time periods and numerical figures. Seemingly inexhaustible, they come out in mind-numbing regularity and rapidity, in this era of 24-hour non-stop news cycles. The following is just a tiny sample.

The Chinese government is bad

Xi Jinping Is Rewriting Chinas History, The New York Times, November 15, 2021

China tries to tamp down controversy surrounding tennis star Peng Shuai, US National Public Radio (NPR), November 22, 2021

Covid-Era Controls May Outlast the Virus, The New York Times, January 30, 2022

Chinese culture is bad

China zoo tries to pass dog off as wolf, BBC, March 5, 2021

Why gendercide is the real war on women, CNN, November 14, 2014

Chinas toxic work culture results in deaths and suicide, Forbes, January 12, 2021

Chinese culinary practices are bad

One Reason for Rising Food Prices? Chinese Hoarding, Bloomberg, January 5, 2022

Chinas Monster Fishing Fleet: Though not alone in its destructive practices, Beijings rapacious fleet causes humanitarian disasters and has a unique military mission, Foreign Policy, November 30, 2020

Why Chinese food safety is so bad, CNN, January 16, 2015

Chinese tech is bad

Why China cant innovate, Harvard Business Review, March 2014

Is TikTok Spying on You for China?, Forbes, July 25, 2020

The worlds largest surveillance system is growing and so is the backlash, Fortune, November 3, 2020

How the Clean Network Changed the Future of Global Technology Competition: A US State Department initiative changed the competitive landscape for 5G, Harvard Business Review, October 5, 2021

Chinese handling of Covid-19 was and is still bad

The Chinese Governments Cover-Up Killed Health Care Workers Worldwide, Foreign Policy, March 18, 2021

Omicron variant threatens to be Xi Jinpings undoing, Nikkei Asia, February 2, 2022

Thousands of lives lost due to Chinas Covid cover-up: US Republican report, The Times of India, August 2, 2021

China Covid-19: How state media and censorship took on coronavirus, BBC, December 29, 2020

Beijing is intentionally under-reporting Chinas Covid death rate, Forbes, January 2, 2022

China is bad on human rights

The IOC and sponsors of the Beijing Games are complicit in Chinas human rights abuses, The Washington Post, January 31, 2022

Chinas genocide against the Uyghurs, in 4 disturbing charts, Vox, March 10, 2021

China breaching every article in genocide convention, says legal report on Uyghurs, The Guardian, March 10, 2021

Chinese support for ‘rogue states’ such as Iran, Russia and North Korea is bad

China has to be put in the category of a rogue state, Deutsche Welle (DW), January 22, 2019

China and the Rogues: How China Deals with Pariah States, The Diplomat, June 30, 2017

How Russia and China Undermine Democracy, Foreign Affairs, October 2, 2018

China is bad for Africa and developing nations

China: Is it burdening poor countries with unsustainable debt? BBC, January 6, 2022

India subtly warns nations of Chinas debt trap diplomacy, Deccan Herald, July 31, 2020

China is bad for American jobs and manufacturing

China trade deficit has cost the US 3.7 million jobs this century, CNBC, January 30, 2020

Trump vows to end Chinas job theft, BBC, February 6, 2019

China really is to blame for millions of lost US manufacturing jobs, MarketWatch, May 14, 2018

How Americas biggest companies made China great again, Newsweek, June 24, 2019

1 Million Workers. 90 Million iPhones. 17 Suicides. Whos to Blame?, Wired, February. 28, 2011

China is bad for threatening Taiwan

Beijings Attempts to Intimidate Taiwan Have Backfired, Foreign Policy, July 30, 2021

Why Is China Bullying Taiwan?, The Diplomat, August 3, 2018

China is bad for cracking down in Hong Kong

A Form of Brainwashing: China Remakes Hong Kong. Neighbours are urged to report on one another. Children are taught to look for traitors. Officials are pressed to pledge their loyalty, The New York Times, June 29, 2021

The leader who killed her city: Carrie Lam has been a unique failure. Yet she is merely a symptom of Hong Kongs ills, The Atlantic, June 18, 2020

How Chinas Rise Has Forced Hong Kongs Decline, The New York Review of Books, November 26, 2019

China is bad for regional peace in Asia

Top US admiral warns about China threat at Halifax forum in Canada, Associated Press, November 21, 2021

Chinas bullying of Australia is bound to backfire, Nikkei Asia, November 5, 2020

China is the principal military and economic threat in Asia, CNBC, December 8, 2020

China is bad for democracy and freedom

The World Is Fed Up with Chinas Belligerence, The Atlantic, November 9, 2021

Chinas Ambitions: Beijings campaign to destroy a fiercely pro-democracy newspaper suggests the playbook that it will use against other open societies, The Wall Street Journal, January 27, 2022

China Wants to Rule the World by Controlling the Rules, The Atlantic, December 9, 2021

China wants to reshape the global order, Axios, January 19, 2018

You be the judge

In short, China is bad for the world, in almost every possible way. It seems President Xi Jinping and his henchmen spend all their waking hours thinking of new ways to oppress and brainwash the Chinese people, exterminate ethnic minorities, destabilise poor nations, subvert Western democracies and plot world conquest.

In 2020, the media organisation Declassified UK released a statistical study of the reliance on unnamed intelligence or government sources by the British news media. It concluded that they routinely helped to demonise states identified by the British government as enemies, while whitewashing those considered as allies.

But the Brits pale in comparison with Americans. Upon retirement, many of the most senior officials from the US intelligence, counterterrorism and domestic law enforcement agencies end up being paid commentators and pundits for big US media corporations. For a list of their names and career paths, see my column, Why do so many US intelligence chiefs become media pundits? on June 24, 2021.

Imagine how it might look if a large number of retired Chinese intelligence and security chiefs ended up writing for Chinas news media. Maybe Xi really is the real-life Dr Evil. More likely, though, the mainstream Western media basically follows their governments foreign policy priorities and goals.

This article was first published by the South China Morning Post and is reproduced with permission.