Rick Scott Photo: Xinhua

Within the US political circle, there are always some politicians who view lambasting China as a means to self-validate and play politics. Republican Senator from Florida Rick Scott is one of them.

Even when it is time that many countries draw lessons from China to tackle the spread of the novel coronavirus, to those American politicians, the idea of working with China is too much to be accepted. They disregard China's success in containing the epidemic within the country and are unwarrantedly confident about the epidemic situation on their own soil. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called on countries infected by the disease to learn from China's experience. In an op-ed in The New York Times, Xie Feng, commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China in Hong Kong, called on the world to "work with China to protect global health."

However, Scott wrote back to Xie's article and claimed that "Communist China cannot be trusted." 

This is not the first time Scott made such a point. In a letter to the WHO in early February, he requested an "independent analysis" of the coronavirus outbreak in China and contended that China cannot be trusted. 

Aside from the fact most Chinese people trust their government and mobilize with it in the current battle against the virus, the WHO conducted independent analyses and hailed China's efforts. 

The Americans' trust in China can only be forged when they adopt a fair attitude to understand China's system and the Communist Party of China. Yet the outdated mentality toward China has been fixated on the minds of people like Scott. Being a stern China critic, this Republican senator has attacked China in many ways. He asserted China has started a new cold war and called for Florida's universities to report to him if any of their researchers might be vulnerable to or participating in Chinese spying. 

Chinese infiltration and Chinese espionage are both clichéd accusations against China. And of course, hysterical US politicians did not forget another easy charge - human rights. Scott recently is joining with Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts on a bipartisan resolution calling for China to lose hosting rights for the 2022 Olympics due to what they called a violation of human rights and oppressing the people of Hong Kong. 

It is Scott who cannot be trusted. As a US senator, what he is supposed to care about is how to benefit the US public and vitalize the US economy, which cannot be gained through attacking China. Attacking China will not make America great again. He seemingly endorses democracy and human rights, but he knows little about Chinese affairs and resorts to sweet talk to bamboozle US voters.

Every instance of Scott's political posturing comes ideology.  But this senator from Florida should be aware that the University of Florida is very popular with Chinese students who constitute the largest on-campus community and contribute a lot to local economy. By constantly bashing China, is such a politician being responsible for the interests of the Americans?