Bill Maher Slams Left’s Reluctance to Criticize China: ‘The New Islam’

[Social Media]

 

Bill Maher has taken aim at what he sees as the left’s hesitancy to criticize China, declaring that the foreign superpower has become “the new Islam” in political discourse. During Friday’s episode of Real Time, Maher raised concerns about China’s rapid technological advancements, particularly in artificial intelligence, and accused liberals of being unwilling to acknowledge the country’s threats for fear of racial insensitivity.

 

Discussing China’s recent AI breakthrough, DeepSeek, Maher compared the moment to the Cold War’s “Sputnik moment” for the United States. He also pointed to former FBI Director Christopher Wray’s warnings that the Chinese Communist Party is deploying “malware” to target American civilians and is developing Salt Typhoon, a program capable of monitoring the text messages of every American.

 

“And it is kind of an evil empire, you know,” Maher said. “And this kind of gets back to the DEI thing because when you make everything about race, not good!”

 

He argued that political correctness has stifled honest discussions about China, citing the debate over the origins of COVID-19. “I mean, we couldn’t look into the origins of COVID being from the lab, which now the CIA, this week, has joined the FBI and many other organizations saying it probably did come from a lab. I said it from the beginning. It’s being studied in this lab where it breaks out. Really? We’re gonna even wonder about this? Now, maybe it was a bat… [but] we couldn’t say that because The New York Times said to even look into that is racist.”

 

Maher referenced a 2021 tweet from a New York Times science and health reporter, who claimed that the lab-leak theory had “racist roots” and was not “plausible.” He criticized this approach, arguing that refusing to acknowledge China’s role in global threats only hinders important conversations.

“China’s like the new Islam. We can’t be honest about them because they’re not White. And China, okay, I’m sorry, kids, they do some bad things, China. And we should just recognize that,” Maher said.

 

British writer Dan Jones agreed, blaming leftist ideology for restricting critical thinking. “This is one of the broader problems with this obsession of all of these ideologies from the left,” Jones said, “is that it hamstrings you in terms of thinking common sense pol—”

“Thinking!” Maher interrupted.

 

“Thinking,” Jones continued in agreement, “because you know if you’re framing it in terms of a war, you’re fighting with one arm tied behind your back. You’re just not thinking about the world as you see it, you’re optimizing the signifying to the group around you.”

 

Author Max Brooks echoed Maher’s concerns, criticizing what he called “guilty honkies” who prioritize easing their own guilt over confronting real-world issues. “Now the good news about this country, we have people of every ethnicity. If you want to take on not China but the Chinese Communist Party, start with Chinese Americans who fled China, right, because they’ll have honest conversations, and they’re as American as all of us and they don’t have guilty honkiness,” Brooks said.

 

Maher agreed, likening it to other communities who have fled oppressive regimes. “Same with Muslims who fled Muslim countries,” he said.

Brooks expanded the point, referencing Cuban exiles as an example of those willing to confront difficult truths about their former homelands. “You want to talk s— about Fidel Castro? Go down to Miami. You’ll find plenty of people willing to have that conversation,” he said.

 

Maher’s critique highlights a growing debate over whether political correctness is limiting open discussion about global threats. While some argue that concerns about racism are valid, Maher and his guests warned that avoiding these conversations only weakens the ability to confront real dangers.

 

Based on a report by NYP 2025-02-04