Chinese experts slam Bannon for comparing China to Nazi Germany
Ex-Trump adviser's view on China in new book angers commentators in China
BEIJING Chinese political watchers have slammed the comparison of China to Nazi Germany made by US President Donald Trump's former top aide Steve Bannon in the controversial book titled "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House".
The experts said that Mr Bannon's comments that China is on the verge of becoming a new Nazi Germany betrayed the anxiety felt by the US elite towards a rising China, according to a report in the Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times.
"China is where Nazi Germany was in 1929 to 1930," Mr Bannon was quoted as saying in the book.
"The Chinese, like the Germans, are the most rational people in the world, until they're not. And they're gonna flip like Germany in the '30s. You're going to have a hyper nationalist state, and once that happens you can't put the genie back in the bottle."
Mr Bannon also called China "the real enemy" of the US and "the first front in a new Cold War".
These comments were criticised by experts in China.
"Bannon's extremist expression shows that the elite in the US regard China as a big threat to the US-led global order," said associate professor Diao Daming at Renmin University of China in Beijing, who was quoted by the Global Times.
"They treat China as a potential destroyer of world prosperity and stability and distort China's diplomatic policies."
Prof Diao added that such comments reflected the anxiety felt by the elite in the US who are concerned about the rise of China.
Mr Bannon, who returned to right-wing and anti-immigration media outlet, Breitbart, after he was fired from the Trump White House, is among those who favour the US taking a tougher position on trade with China.
They believe that Beijing is exploiting America's openness while keeping its own markets closed, according to previous reports in the New York Times.
Mr Bannon is known for his anti-China rhetoric and spreading the China threat theory, the Global Times said, quoting professor Li Haidong at China Foreign Affairs University's Institute of International Relations.
For decades, the US has been providing investment and technologies to China. But as China rises, the elite in the US policy community begin to call on their government to define China as a strategic rival, Prof Li told the Global Times.
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