U.S. officials are curtailing their use of the term “malign influence” to refer to Chinese misconduct abroad, amid progressive advocacy efforts urging the Biden administration to seek common ground with Beijing.
Top U.S. officials have used the term for several years to call out China over its political-interference operations in Western democracies. But advocates apparently have convinced the administration that the term is imprecise and likely to fuel anti-Asian hatred generally. The issue came up during an official webinar last month, when a speaker suggested that the State Department would avoid such “sweeping” language.
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