How low can Western media go

These are examples of comments from readers:

It's almost like NYT and their ilk just rehash these hit pieces every time there's an Olympics going on. Just screams butthurt when their team isn't on top.

Playing into the Sinophobic view that Chinese people are somehow more machine-like in their brain, as opposed to us free-will-having Westerners

All those allegations against China are utterly ridiculous considering the fact that the US lures promising athletes from poor countries aiming for success in sports and revelations about US athletes using banned drugs under WADA permission.

Americans are simply unable to tolerate other countries' successes because they are under the delusion that they're the 'shining beacon on the hill' that should guide the world. Everything is a zero-sum game in their view.

We had 4 years of Anti Russia hysterics. It was a mental illness that was untreated and morphed to include Anti China hysteria. It is like crazy people have taken the US common sense & logic as a hostage. This is such bizarre behavior of a country, you might believe that maybe we are suffering a " mass hysteria" breakdown of society. I can't believe that the US, a once well respected country, has become morally bankrupt. And lie, cheat, steal, Whine.

What's next in Western media's China bashing

So what's likely to feature next in the western media's xenophobic China bashing? We have already seen the media fixation with damning China on Tibet, Hongkong, Xinjiang, Huawei, cotton products, the China virus, and so on.

Coming up next is likely to be the Beijing Winter Olympics and climate change. Finger pointing at China and scare mongering has already started in Australia with one of the main presenters at Sky News Australia sensationalizing the news that "China emits in 16 days what Australia does in an entire year".

The inconvenient truth is that on a per-capita basis, China's carbon emissions are still considerably less than Australia's. The latest data in 2018 shows China with a per capita carbon emission of 7.4 metric tonnes or less than half of Australia's 15.5. Also pertinent is that the carbon emissions of China are an outcome of higher-income countries outsourcing their emissions-intensive industries to China.

On climate change, the bigger picture which Australia's media and public need to pick on is that Australia is the worst-performing country on climate change policy according to the latest international ranking of 57 countries. The 2020 Climate Change Performance Index prepared by a group of thinktanks comprising the NewClimate Institute, the Climate Action Network and Germanwatch, looks at national climate action across the categories of emissions, renewable energy, energy use and policy. Across all four categories, Australia ranks as the sixth-worst performing of the 57 countries assessed. The expert report found that the Morrison government "has continued to worsen performance at both national and international levels" and noted that the government "is an increasingly regressive force" in climate change negotiations.

In contrast China compares favourably with a ranking of 33 and the country's leadership has been praised for "implementing many significant policies in multiple sectors that have implications for climate change" as well as for its "increased show of climate leadership".