London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 17, 2025

The poisonous US reaction to China’s America-born gold medalist is very revealing

The poisonous US reaction to China’s America-born gold medalist is very revealing

Californian Eileen Gu’s decision to compete for her mother’s homeland rather than America has incensed a nation wracked by insecurity over China
Eileen Gu is an 18-year-old Chinese American Olympian from San Francisco who made the decision to compete for China, her mother’s native country, in the Winter Olympics, rather than the United States. On Tuesday, Eileen won a gold medal in her ski event – an outstanding achievement, but one that was quickly mired in political controversy.

While her victory was widely praised and celebrated on the Chinese internet, and heralded by the Foreign Ministry, many Americans reacted with disdain and attacked her. Fox News' Will Cain effectively branded her “shameful” for “betraying the United States”, accusing her of having pursued her career pathway “for money.” Fellow Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson called her “dumb” and said Americans should feel “revulsion,” while notorious anti-China journalist Melissa Chan accused her of being naive and a "propaganda tool.”

Mainstream media outlets relentlessly quizzed her on her nationality, and the coverage largely focused on this, not her sporting success. The Global Times, the Chinese state media outlet, interpreted this as an inability by America to come to terms with China's rise and success in the world, stating: “The US has grown to be a global power by attracting global talent. Now Washington criticizes those who choose Beijing over it, displaying American elites' calculated snobbery.”

The row over Gu has become a microcosm of China-United States tensions and the broader political conflict around them. That is, the inflammation of mutual nationalist anger and the increasing sense of insecurity that has dogged the American psyche surrounding China, the fear of its own displacement in a changing world, the fear of a loss of status, the twilight of its own unipolarity, and the desire to re-establish America's rightful position. Gu's achievements have been overshadowed by the firestorm, which follows America’s wholesale politicization of the Winter Olympics as part of its propaganda war against China, which has poisoned the media environment.

Throughout the event, the narrative has been relentlessly negative, from astroturfing the complaints of athletes, to hammering endless reports about Uighurs and the ‘missing’ tennis player Peng Shuai, to attacking the country’s zero-Covid policies, and so on. This politicized narrative seeks to deprive China of any increased legitimacy or positive perceptions from the event. So the story of an American-born athlete achieving gold for China descends into a political tug of war, despite the fact that it is very common in all sports for athletes to choose to play for other countries through their parentage.

Whilst some in America cry foul, Gu becomes a key figure for China in how it strives to present itself, as a country that is open, achieving, and rising, and capable of attracting talent from all over the world. America’s vitriolic response to her exposes its total unwillingness to accept why one might legitimately identify with China. The US has whipped up a binary narrative depicting everything as being orchestrated as a villainous plot by the Communist Party, which does not authentically represent the will of the Chinese people, as per the Western assumption of “enlightenment.”

In line with these assumptions, American politicians and media outlets effectively dehumanize all Chinese people as spies, thieves, and propagandists, who inauthentically toe the party line. China’s rise is portrayed as being at the expense of America through “theft” and so-called “unfair practices” (like producing better goods, more cheaply, than American businesses can).

Anyone who contradicts this narrative is dismissed as paid, brainwashed, or in cahoots with the Communist Party. The ability for balanced discussion has been closed down amid surging new McCarthyism. This phenomenon has been shown relentlessly in the saga with Peng Shuai, where the mainstream media and the Women's Tennis Association will simply not leave her alone or trust anything she says, unless she gives them the anti-China narrative they want to hear.

The idea that a talented and high-achieving American-born girl could opt for China above the United States is simply impossible for the average American to understand. She must, therefore, be a traitor, an opportunist, or in it for the money. A brilliant act of athleticism poisoned by an orchestrated hate campaign.

Yet much to the dismay of America, Gu has brushed off the criticism of her. She has declared that she has no regrets and says China is where she finds her belonging. Who are we to judge this? And who are we to show resentment towards her? Gu, who decided in 2019 to compete for China (where she is well known as Gu Ailing), has an incredible future ahead of her, and the US reactions to her astounding victory only show how ugly, how bitter, and how poisonous America has become in its approach towards China. It is the collective loss of sanity of an entire nation.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
U.S. Chamber Sues Trump Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Shenzhen Expo Spotlights China’s Quantum Step in Semiconductor Self-Reliance
China Accelerates to the Forefront in Global Nuclear Fusion Race
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
Australia’s Wedgetail Spies Aid NATO Response as Russian MiGs Breach Estonian Airspace
McGowan Urges Chalmers to Cut Spending Over Tax Hike to Close $20 Billion Budget Gap
Victoria Orders Review of Transgender Prison Placement Amid Safety Concerns for Female Inmates
U.S. Treasury Mobilises New $20 Billion Debt Facility to Stabilise Argentina
French Business Leaders Decry Budget as Macron’s Pro-Enterprise Promise Undermined
Trump Claims Modi Pledged India Would End Russian Oil Imports Amid U.S. Tariff Pressure
Surging AI Startup Valuations Fuel Bubble Concerns Among Top Investors
Australian Punter Archie Wilson Tears Up During Nebraska Press Conference, Sparking Conversation on Male Vulnerability
Australia Confirms U.S. Access to Upgraded Submarine Shipyard Under AUKUS Deal
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
Brands Confront New Dilemma as Extremists Adopt Fashion Labels
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
×