How the US sees China today is reflected in the relentless China bashing in the Western media. But how and why China is bad is never explored. The Western media uses tricks and trivia in news headlines that make you actually believe China is evil. COVID and the Ukraine crisis are two examples of toxic Western media rhetoric.

In a CNN video, CNN's China correspondent Selina Wang explored the streets of Beijing to see how life is in China following relaxed COVID restrictions. A man waiting to get a table in a restaurant kindly talked to Wang, but in the voiceover, Wang described him as someone from the place where the pandemic started.

Trying to link Wuhan to the pandemic origin isn't some innocuous description, but a deliberate attempt to hammer in the idea that China is evil. First, WHO reiterates that nothing is certain about the origin of COVID so far. The scientific community has yet to arrive at any conclusion about where the pandemic started. Second, it feeds into the xenophobia that's already rampant in American society. Third, Wang used to complain that people don't want to talk to foreign journalists. Now that someone kindly accepts her interview, she chose to defame the man's hometown.

Western media is rewriting the narrative and competing for discursive power. A piece titled As War in Ukraine Grinds On, China Helps Refill Russian Drone Supplies from The New York Times is full of one-sided facts and biased conclusions. This article was released during a meeting between the leaders of China and Russia.

Western media has long followed the government's talking points and produced stories about how China sends weapons to Russia. But none of those are based on evidence. The article claimed that China has shipped more than $12 million in drones to Russia. But a single American military drone costs roughly $32 million. So, the drones in the article are, at best, just harmless civilian drones.

A picture under the headline shows a huge drone in a parade in Beijing. The picture is misleading, making you believe Beijing is sending this aircraft to Russia. But none of the drones showcased in the parade are for sale. All of the pictures the New York Times used in the article are of Ukrainian troops using Chinese DJI drones. The New York Times has no photographic evidence of the drones that China has given to Russia, and has to resort to manipulative tactics to support their fear mongering. One of their quoted "experts" is Cole Rosentreter, a man who has a clear conflict of interest, as he is the chief executive of the Canadian drone maker Pegasus, a direct competitor to the Chinese tech company DJI.

COVID and the Ukraine crisis are just two recent examples, but the broader issue is the years-long propaganda network that pushes a negative narrative of China. The unbalanced Western reports on China help the US war machine to sell war on China. Today it is China, tomorrow it could be anyone.

Li Changxiang constitutes to the story.