The Trump administration took aim at China on Thursday and criticized Beijing far beyond trade. US Vice President Mike Pence delivered a speech to a conservative audience in Washington, DC, where he accused China of meddling in US elections and being aggressive militarily, among other claims.

"Over the past 17 years, China's GDP has grown nine-fold; it has become the second-largest economy in the world. Much of this success was driven by American investment in China. And the Chinese Communist Party has also used an arsenal of policies inconsistent with free and fair trade, including tariffs, quotas, currency manipulation, forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft, and industrial subsidies doled out like candy, to name a few. These policies have built Beijing's manufacturing base, at the expense of its competitors – especially America." That's Mike Pence's accusations.

Is there a pattern to the US' "concerns" in China, and what is truly behind the comments? 

Actually, the Trump administration is under fire on many domestic issues. And it seems every time the US president faces scrutiny at home, China becomes his best diversionary tactic.

"Everybody in Washington is going to be talking about Trump's speech. And that means they won't be talking about the fact that his family has been implicated for not paying their taxes on his father's death estate," said current affairs commentator Einar Tangen in a studio interview.

Such deflection of attention also brings Trump advantages. Trump is using such accusations to get the international press to believe that there's something going on. He thinks these kinds of actions will help him in the elections going forward. 

According to Tangen, "bashing China has always been a long-time political gamble to get more votes. And he is really playing it very very strong."

But it's not necessarily going to resonate with all Americans. The whole basis of everything that the Trump administration is saying are false. Whether jobs have been stolen or IP is being stolen, neither of those have any actual proof. They are merely assertions of what happened. And it might have something to do with the declining support for President Trump. 

According to a CNN poll conducted by survey research firm SSRS in September, only 36 percent of Americans support the way Trump has handled his job, a six-percent decline from August. 

The poll also showed that those who express "strong disapproval" of the president is at almost 50 percent. And those who say they "strongly approve" is below 30 percent. In terms of trade, 53 percent disapprove of his policies, while those voicing support is only at 35 percent. For immigration, the numbers are 59 percent versus 35 percent. And for foreign policy, they're at 56 percent against 36 percent.

Will the situation change with the Trump administration's scapegoating? Tangen believes this is a psychological message. 

"Despite the fact that evidence is coming out to the contrary, the US public has formed an emotional bond. Psychologically, [the] US is the white hat; there has to be a black hat. It's really easy to expect that there is an enemy. Once you have the enemy, you can scapegoat anything. You can talk about how they're doing all the bad stuff. We're just victims – that's Donald Trump's main message," said Tangen.

This is a new low for the Trump administration in trying to turn China-bashing into total Sinophobia. The Trump administration is getting desperate in trying to scapegoat China for everything that goes wrong in the US.

Just as Tangen commented, "it really takes away any neutral ground."