Ignorant, disrespectful rhetoric shows cause of difficult relations

It is highly unlikely that US Vice-President JD Vance, who himself hails from a working-class background in the United States' rust belt, was unaware that the term "peasants", which he used to describe Chinese people on a Fox News Show, has derogatory connotations. As someone on a social networking site pointed out, it comes from "someone who has used his 'American peasant' roots to craft his political image".

Anyone who has read his book Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis will know how Vance faced poverty and hardships in life but rose to the top by virtue of his grit and determination. A famous quote from his book, "What separates the successful from the unsuccessful are the expectations that they had for their own lives", still resonates with many US citizens.

If Vance intended to belittle Chinese people by calling them "peasants", then he was simultaneously belittling himself, his supporters, and his own humble beginnings. In fact, Vance seems to have a limited understanding of the Chinese people. He told Fox News Show: "We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture." The notion is definitely not rooted in serious academic research or verified statistics, but borrowed from an online discourse.