The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the State Department will limit future visas for members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and their immediate family members from their prior multi-entry 10-year status to only a single-entry one-month period. The US government claims that this is intended "to protect our nation from the CPC's malign influence," but all that it really shows is that America is afraid of its people learning that China is neither "backwards" nor the "enemy" as officials deceitfully portray it as.

The Trump administration had earlier toyed with outright banning the estimated 270 million people who might be affected by this policy but for whatever reason decided only to drastically limit their trips to the US They might have made this choice for reasons of short-term economic pragmatism since the affected individuals are usually government officials, business people or those immediately related to them who have the means to spend more than average tourists.

Still, the move is extremely unfriendly and represents another one of the Trump administration's efforts to box President-elect Joe Biden into continuing the incumbent's hostile policies towards China that he'll be inheriting, as was previously observed by the Associated Press, CNN and Reuters, among others. The pretext for doing so is ostensibly national security and in order to combat "malign influence," but these excuses are exposed as hollow if one really spends time to think about them.

The US is never tired of presenting itself as the best country by far in the history of humanity due to its leadership's belief in so-called "American exceptionalism," yet if they sincerely believed that to be the case, then one would imagine that they'd actually want more Chinese to visit in order to see how good the country is. The truth of the matter, however, is that the US isn't as perfect as it portrays itself as being, and its leadership is quietly cognizant of this despite publicly claiming otherwise.

In fact, the US is increasingly insecure with how problematic everything is becoming at home, especially after Trump's four chaotic years in office. From racial riots to a declining economy and decrepit infrastructure, on top of unprecedented partisan divisions among the populace, surging crime rates, and the drug epidemic, America's leaders are actually embarrassed about everything. It's not that they fear Chinese communists seeing this, but that they're afraid that these visitors will tell Americans how much better everything is in their country.

Americans have been indoctrinated into thinking that China is a "backward enemy" of the US where everyone lives in misery under a "dictatorship," but the reality is altogether different. Unlike the US, China is extremely safe and stable, and its people's living conditions all across the country continue to improve by the year. Many Americans might not believe these facts if they read them on the internet, but if they heard them from a visiting member of the CPC or their immediate family member, then they might become much more credible.

When these individuals are in America on an extended or multiple stay, they have much more time to interact with the locals, but limiting them to only a single-entry one-month trip means that most will probably prioritize seeing famous sites and other such touristy places instead. The US government still wants them to come and spend money on the local economy, but they want to greatly limit how convenient it is for them to engage and socialize with the locals for extended lengths of time, hence the drastic curtailment of future visas periods.

Americans should ask themselves why their government is so afraid of CPC members and their immediate family visiting the US for long periods of time if they're supposedly so confident that their country is the best one by far in the history of humanity. If that was really the case, then they wouldn't have to peddle the conspiracy theory that these visitors could destabilize the US The resultant insight upon pondering this question leads to the uncomfortable conclusion that the government is lying to its people.

The author is a Moscow-based American political analyst.