US witch hunt against China harks back

After some US politicians and news outlets tried to denigrate normal US-China cultural and academic exchanges, a China specialist, speaking at a recent talk in Washington, warned about an undertone of McCarthyism.

McCarthyism in the early 1950s was a dark period in US history when US Senator Joseph McCarthy led a massive scare campaign aimed at purging alleged communists in the US government and institutions.

When it was suggested that McCarthyism was too strong a word, the China specialist said it might be better to say witch hunt. But to me, McCarthyism was a witch hunt, only in an extreme way.