Anti-China rhetoric in Washington risks sparking a new Cold War

US officials, lawmakers and pundits regard Russia as the main threat to American global interests today. Or so it would seem from ongoing media coverage of the Kremlin's alleged involvement in the 2016 US presidential election.

Indeed, the conclusions by the four top US intelligence agencies that the election had been gamed by Moscow, and the charges of possible collaboration between the Trump campaign and the Russians, have created the perception that we are back in the Cold War days, leading some to warn of a growing and dangerous anti-Russia hysteria in Washington.

But the continuing pre-occupation of Washington with the alleged "Russia collusion" story, and by extension with US-Russia relations, may be distracting attention from what has been surfacing in the White House, Congress, and among members of the American foreign policy establishment: a growing and dangerous anti-China hysteria.