Outrage over Trump saying 'Chinese virus' says a lot about critics' biases

Much outrage has materialized over President Trump’s use of the term “Chinese virus” to refer to the novel coronavirus pandemic affecting the United States and the world. Critics have condemned the president as “racist” and “xenophobic.”

Certainly, such allegations are not new for the president. Just as in the past, they reveal far more about the biases of the accusers than they do about Trump.

For the past three years, many of the critics calling Trump a racist have repeatedly condemned him of buddying up to authoritarian strongmen such as Chinese President Xi Jinping. If Trump were a real anti-Chinese racist, why would he have great fondness for the leader of 1.4 billion Chinese citizens? Trump haters cannot be bothered to answer such questions.

More importantly, critics who are now in a mad hurry to label Trump a racist have not bothered to notice that Trump’s characterization of COVID-19, the current strand of coronavirus, as “Chinese” is quite recent. He began using the term pointedly and repeatedly in his tweets and public statements within the past week, even though the world started paying attention to the seriousness and lethality of the COVID-19 outbreak in China as early as January 2020.