Chinese State Media Aims at Steve Bannon: ‘Most Stubborn of the Anti-Chinese People’
Chinese media is taking aim at Steve Bannon, with one broadcaster calling the former White House adviser a “shameless anti-Chinese pioneer” over the weekend.
“Bannon is one of the most shameless, stubborn anti-Chinese people who ignore the fact and law [and] want to make the world in chaos,” one broadcaster said of Bannon according to the translation of a 90 second newscast on China’s Central Television (CCTV). The anchor adds that “sinister American politicians” are “cooperating” with Bannon to take advantage of the virus.
Washington Post reporter Gerry Shih said the attack was similar to one directed at Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who accused the Chinese Communist Party of failing to share all of China’s information about the coronavirus with other countries.
Steve Bannon has no title in the administration but has CCP so shook CCTV dedicated a 90-second “Ruiping” to personally blast him–a distinction only Pompeo has received https://t.co/0VlF31EJEp https://t.co/KqKyPnqxQE
— Gerry Shih (@gerryshih) May 4, 2020
China Global Television Network, a different state-backed Chinese news outlet, also published a Monday op-ed whacking Bannon.
“Spending years championing aggressive confrontational policies with Beijing, Bannon time and again pulls off a ‘responsible American citizen’ act that demands he speaks in the interests of America,” Hannan Hussain, identified as a “security analyst” for the London School of Economics, wrote for the publication. “Let it be known: Bannon was never a man of the people, let alone a man of peace with Beijing,”
Bannon, a former adviser to President Donald Trump, has used tough rhetoric on China’s ruling Communist Party since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, accusing the regime of “premeditated murder” and estimating the country owes the world “north of $5 trillion” for economic devastation wrought by the virus.
CGTN cited Bannon’s rhetoric on trade and his record leading the “violence-prone” Breitbart News as reasons he shouldn’t be trusted — and expressed alarm over politicians who have suggested China should lose its sovereign immunity over coronavirus. “It is important to note that some of America’s leading academics … have called the bluff on Washington’s reparation argument, making it clear that the proposition was a self-manufactured one with no pre-existing mechanism for accountability in existence.
“Bannon has also drawn groundless parallels between China’s Covid-19 response and what he called a ‘premeditated murder’ reflective of a ‘biological Chernobyl.’ This belligerent assertion is hardly a surprise given how Bannon has made an entire reputation on the back of the racist, xenophobic and violence-prone Breitbart News,” the CGTN op-ed added.
UPDATE: The London School of Economics issued a May 4 statement denying any association with Hannan Hussain, writing “the position of ‘Security Analyst’ does not even exist” at the school.
