Editor's Note: Tom Fowdy is a British political and international relations analyst and a graduate of Durham and Oxford universities. He writes on topics pertaining to China, the DPRK, Britain and the United States. This article reflects the author's opinion and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

According to a report from Bloomberg over the weekend, American authorities have been forcefully purging ethnic Chinese scientists researching cancer within top medical institutions. The report details that a number of award-winning medical researchers of Chinese nationality, including one who was a naturalized citizen, had been forced out of their respective positions at leading institutes for having professional ties and advisory rules with similar organizations within China. The moves were influenced by the country’s national institutes for health, in coordination with the FBI.

The story further notes that the forced resignations came amid unproven fears that the scientists would “share” or “steal” medical research to their Chinese counterparts, detailing such as a direct consequence of the Trump administration’s all-embracing assault on things about Beijing and hysteria over technology. On that note, it described as everything as being “commoditized” in America’s “Cold War” With China.

The fact that even cancer research is now being painted in the light of McCarthyist politics is deeply concerning. It is an explanation of how ill tasting Washington’s attitudes to China have become. Cancer is one of the biggest killers in the world today. Medical research is never about national security, competition, or hegemony, but it is a subject-derived upon ethical means and acts in the immediate interests of humanity itself. If the United States believes that purging talent who only work to save lives is politically desirable, then it is a sorry state of affairs. Only America will lose in this way.

Cancer is a tragedy. It is a horrific illness which espouses unquenchable suffering and pain on families. In 2018, varieties of the disease stood as the second highest cause of deaths in the United States. Every year, over 1.8 million new cases of cancer are diagnosed in America, an estimated 600,000 or so will die from it. Worldwide, 9.6 million people died from the illness in 2018. As a result, it has consistently been a top priority of medical and scientific research. There is a clear consensus that is aiming to reduce, eradicate, and control all forms of cancer would be a service to humanity itself.

However, Washington these days feels differently. The political climate has changed for the worse. There is a prevailing belief that all things related to China are now a threat to America. The scope and range have neither limits nor rationality. All Chinese citizens and organizations are seen as potential spies and technology thieves only looking to undermine America at the benefit of the Communist Party of China. Everything, from mobile phones to students, to subway cars is suspect and sadly, not least, cancer researchers too.

As the Bloomberg report notes, the FBI is now working with America’s national institutes for health and introspecting Chinese scientist’s conducting medical research on the fear that whatever they gain will be “stolen” and passed onto China. The fact that these scholars, had open and as the report notes “Professional” ties to Chinese medical boards and institutions was somehow deemed a national security threat, the argument being espoused that even if the content of their research was not classified or a national security threat (which obviously cancer research is not) it was still unacceptable and a risk owing to the broad scope of the policies now imposed by the Trump administration pertaining to technology and China.

But this is a sign of how low Washington has sunk. Medical research and achievements are not about politics, or at least they should not be. Instead, such things are aptly done out of goodwill for the ethical benefit of humanity itself. Ideally, nowhere in the world should human beings be deprived of innovative and modern medical research, which offers them the chance to live. Of course, global society is unequal, but there is a no good or feasible argument as to why such content should not be in the public domain.

This misses the broader point nevertheless, that not only was there no proof that such researchers “stolen” their institutional research and gave it to China, but also that these people were working for the benefit of American healthcare and American citizens. Now, the door is being shut on that. Keeping China off U.S. technology at all costs is apparently better than cooperation with Chinese, which allows Americans a better shot at surviving and avoiding cancer.

As a result, this speaks words about the mindset of Washington. The all-embracing attack and demonization of all things related to China are not going to benefit Americans. By being so eager to “decouple” and “deprive” Beijing, there seems to be an absence of recognition that the U.S. itself will suffer. Medical research is ultimately a field which requires global cooperation and cannot stop at national borders. By attacking the brightest and the best, America is surgically cutting off its nose to spite its face.

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