After the details of China's highly successful espionage campaign against the United States became widely known and Congress proposed tougher security measures, United Nations ambassador Bill Richardson denounced those who were supposedly questioning "the patriotism of Asian-Pacific Americans and sowing the seeds of a darker xenophobia" because of China's obvious strategy of using Chinese-American agents. "It happened back during World War II, when Japanese Americans were uprooted from their homes and forced into internment camps," said Richardson by way of comparison.

Maurice Meisner declared in the Los Angeles Times that "opportunistic American politicians now portray American Chinese in stereotypical fashion. The increasingly dominant images are of 19th century vintage: Chinese are crafty, deceitful, villainous and half-crazed automatons manipulated by evil rulers. It has become ever more difficult for Americans to see Chinese as fellow humans." Neither supplied evidence of bigoted reprisals against Chinese-Americans. Perhaps the closest thing came when Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) described the spies as "crafty," which of course is what they are supposed to be.

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