I have been blown away over the past months by the horrible and arguably racist China puns coming out of DC. Long thread ahead here...bear with me. Just a few that come to mind: 1/

FIRST: the "Concerns Over Nations Funding University Campus Institutes in the United States" Act, aka the CONFUCIUS Act. Who the hell thought this was a good idea (referring to the title here, not commenting on the substance of the bill) 2/ https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/939

Yeah I get the whole thing with Confucius Institutes. But Confucius was a cultural/historical symbol LONG before Hangban decided to use the name. In choosing this name for a bill, the U.S. is showing how ignorant it is of Chinese society. This name is alienating. Change it. 3/

NEXT: this DHS Intelligence report on Chinese influence targeting the United States is full of interesting and important information. But DHS--did you HAVE to make your graphic a fan? 4/

China is not the only country that uses fans people. And since when do we use cultural artifacts to describe the malign behavior of other countries? Just stick to a circle next time. It's just as effective and significantly less racist. 5/

And LASTLY (for now): CSIS and the "Washington's China Policy Has Lost Its Wei" report. C'mon people. This report could be chock full of well-research analysis and interesting takes...but you lost me at the name. 6/ https://www.csis.org/analysis/washingtons-china-policy-has-lost-its-wei

Don't get me wrong. Chinese language puns are fun amongst friends. But for the title of a publication? No way. And what are you getting out of using "wei" instead of "way"? A laugh? Something about it reads very Global Times to me. Do better. 7/

The U.S. needs to take the high road here, especially if the U.S.-China relationship continues on its downward trajectory. We need to put out responsible, well-researched, and credible information--not stupid, racist puns.