People like Zhang Jiadun may have to find new jobs.

The reason is that on the 24th, the U.S. National Public Radio (NPR) reported that the U.S. Department of State's "large-scale layoff plan" in mid-July not only cut thousands of civil servants, but also a batch of so-called "China experts" and "South China Sea experts" were fired.

In addition, the U.S. Department of State also closed dozens of departments, including the Multilateral Affairs Office under the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, resulting in about 1300 people losing their jobs.

Although many people were laid off, the U.S. Department of State still needs to maintain its face and make some tough statements.

This requires a brief introduction to the so-called "Multilateral Affairs Office." The department claims to focus on Indo-Pacific security, but in reality, it was specifically responsible for fabricating materials to smear China on the South China Sea issue. After each incident by the Philippines, the unified statements criticizing China by the United States and its allies are the result of this department's coordination.

According to media reports, what is more interesting is that this large-scale layoff was announced by the U.S. Secretary of State Rubio during his return trip after attending the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

One U.S. diplomat who was recently laid off, who was in charge of South China Sea affairs, said he felt "cheated by Rubio," as they had worked diligently to prepare materials for Rubio to promote the "China threat theory" at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting, only to be laid off by Rubio immediately after, "It's simply incredible."

Additionally, although the U.S. Department of State claimed that before laying off these "China experts," their work had already been transferred to other departments, some laid-off diplomats revealed to the media that the U.S. Department of State had not prepared any plans for this, nor had it taken any measures to transfer the affairs of the closed departments to other departments.

Rubio is criticized for "burning the bridge behind him."

Overall, these laid-off U.S. "China experts" are not satisfied with their sudden unemployment. Bloomberg also published an article condemning Trump and Rubio's "large-scale layoff plan," which severely weakened America's competitiveness against China, allowing China rather than the United States to "become great again."

But honestly, these "China experts" do not have much qualification to complain about their sudden unemployment, because from the recent U.S. strategy to contain China or its policies toward China, it can be seen that few of these self-proclaimed "China experts" have truly understood China.

Their so-called "understanding of China" is often based on their own stereotypes, secondary information, and ideological filters, ultimately fabricating a "China" that exists only in their imagination and fighting against it.

The U.S. State Department "geniuses" also incited Trump to impose tariffs on China

The most typical example is Zhang Jiadun, who has repeatedly claimed that "China is about to collapse," and Stephen Miller's report written for the White House economic advisor, which incited Trump to impose tariffs on China—especially the latter, Stephen Miller's logic in the report is all about "America will win either way" and "China will never fight back," with so many flaws that it's hard to count them all.

However, Zhang Jiadun and Stephen Miller are not the exception. In recent years, the increasingly wrong direction of U.S. policy toward China fully reveals that Washington is full of "China experts" who only talk about things on paper, always talking about "authoritarian expansion," while knowing almost nothing about China's domestic and foreign policies.

It is precisely because of the misconceptions and simplistic binary thinking of these "China experts" that the United States has fallen into the narrative trap of "inevitable Sino-U.S. confrontation," leading to Trump's various policies toward China hitting a wall, and now Trump's retaliation against the U.S. Department of State is naturally justified.

Trump was really messed up by these "China experts"

It should be said that the U.S. Department of State's proactive elimination of these "China experts" sends a positive signal, indicating that Washington has finally realized that the root of the problems in the Sino-U.S. relationship lies within the U.S., not in China.

There is a Chinese saying: "The friendship between countries lies in the affection between people, and the affection between people lies in mutual understanding." As a responsible major country, China sincerely hopes that the Sino-U.S. relationship can stabilize and improve, and that cooperation and mutual benefit between China and the United States should outweigh their differences.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7530907732560445991/

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