RE CURRENT 'CHINA BASHING'

To see how this term came about previously, re Japan, and how it was used very effectively back then, to defuse perfectly legitimate criticism, mainly of the US system of economic and political patronage to foreign client states and major corporations, and was not so much really about 'bashing' foreign regimes as such, see prior posts re Trading Places, Trading American Interests, Japan Who Governs, etc.

It was easy then to manipulate American academic and public opinion away from taking a serious look at how the US government tried to administer business and foreign policy, globally. It has been a pathetic story, going back to the Marshall Plan really.