US Republican Senator Tom Cotton recently publicly suggested stopping visiting Chinese students from learning quantum computing and artificial intelligence at US universities, and only allowing them to study Shakespeare and the Federalist Papers. He said it is a scandal to train Chinese nationals to "go back to China to compete for Americans' jobs and to take their business."

The Cold War rhetoric of the Arkansas lawmaker sparked a great outcry for being racist, violating the democratic spirit purported to be upheld by the US, and being ignorant, as Shakespeare was a Briton instead of American. Critics alleged the visa ban on Chinese students is effectively an act of "self-sabotage," saying barring the best and brightest from studying in the country will only handicap the ability of the US to compete.

However, the facts have not changed US officials' attitudes toward Chinese students, who continue to be seen as a threat to US national security. The US has witnessed a significant decline in the number of Chinese students. Since 2018, the US government has widely shortened the visa validity of Chinese graduate students in high-tech majors such as robotics, aviation, and high-end manufacturing. Chinese scholars making educational visits to the US are also under political pressure. Dozens have had their visas canceled on suspicions of espionage, commercial theft, and political interference. The US, which has long followed an open, pluralistic and inclusive path in the academic field, began to move toward being closed, conservative and exclusive, stepping into the abyss of isolationism.

Cotton is considered an onrushing anti-China vanguard in the Capitol. Described as having "deranged ideology," he was one of the first lawmakers to spread the lie that COVID-19 was manipulated in a Wuhan lab -- an idea mocked as a "conspiracy theory" and repeatedly refuted by scientists worldwide and the World Health Organization. A 57-page memo advising GOP candidates to address the coronavirus crisis by aggressively attacking China has shocked the world for its maliciousness, and the author has reportedly advised Cotton.

"As we self-isolate, it's a good time to think about what isn't working in America. The name Tom Cotton should be at the top of every list,” one US netizen commented. Targeting China is an increasingly popular position in the Republican Party, and Cotton, according to Politico, uses radical and fierce attacks on China to position himself in a crowded GOP field.

In this pursuit of populist politics and personal advantage, the anti-China hawks are going to extremes, leading Americans to turn more chauvinistic, which will only bring the superpower to become a more isolated place and harm the existing international system.