Morris-Suzuki, a prize-winning Asian Studies expert, initially set out to research images of China taken during the Korean War. This morphed into a study of dehumanising language Western writers have used to describe Chinese people. While looking into the topic, she discovered the work of Peter Navarro, a former economics professor at the University of California, Irvine. Navarro currently serves as Trump's Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy and is regarded as the White House's leading anti-China hawk. He has played a crucial role in the US-China trade war by urging Trump to place tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods.

Loading "I came across the fact that in some of his writings Peter Navarro used the phrase 'Chinese hordes'," Morris-Suzuki says. "I was a little taken aback that this phrase was still being used in the 21st century." Reading Navarro's books, she noticed the same name popping up repeatedly: Ron Vara. His language was even more extreme than Navarro's.

In his 2011 book Death by China, Navarro quoted Vara saying: "Only the Chinese can turn a leather sofa into an acid bath, a baby crib into a lethal weapon, and a cellphone battery into heart-piercing shrapnel." Tessa Morris-Suzuki says the anagram was "a bit of a giveaway". Credit:Alex Ellinghausen In another book he quoted Vara saying: "You’ve got to be nuts to eat Chinese food." Besides describing him as a Harvard graduate, Navarro didn't offer much detail about Vara's identity. So Morris-Suzuki looked into it. "I assumed he'd just turn out to be someone in a conservative think tank," she says. "Then I became intrigued because I couldn't find him anywhere."

She was about to contact Harvard when it struck her: Ron Vara is an anagram of Navarro. It was, she says, a "bit of a giveaway" that Vara is a fictional character rather than a real person. Peter Navarro says the fictional character was a "whimsical device" he used in his books. Credit:Bloomberg Her suspicion was right. When a reporter from The Chronicle of Higher Education confronted Navarro with Morris-Suzuki's findings last week, he confirmed that Vara was a"whimsical device" he had created. The story was quickly picked up by big-name US media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and National Public Radio.

Navarro told reporters it was "refreshing that somebody finally figured out an inside joke that has been hiding in plain sight for years". He compared his use of the alias to Alfred Hitchcock's habit of making cameo appearances in his own movies. But not everyone was amused. Economist Glenn Hubbard - who co-wrote a book with Navarro in which Vara is quoted- said he had no idea Vara was a fictional alter ego. The Chinese government, meanwhile, was incandescent. "Making up and peddling lies, even making policy based on lies, is not only ridiculous, but also extremely dangerous," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a briefing on Tuesday local time (Wednesday AEDT).

"It will not only impact and threaten normal international relations and order, but in the long run, it will ultimately harm the interests of the United States itself." She added: "Some opinions or arguments that certain people in the United States are trying to sell must be carefully screened." Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Navarro's publisher, Pearson, said it took breaches of its ethical standards "very seriously". Future editions of Death by China will include a publisher's note advising readers: "Ron Vara is not an actual person, but rather an alias created by Peter Navarro."

Peter Navarro's 2012 documentary Death by China positions China as a threat to the US economy. Morris-Suzuki, who lives in Canberra, says she has been fielding inquiries from international media outlets since the story broke. "To invent somebody as a little joke and quote from them in a satirical essay or something like that could be rather funny," she says. "But it seems rather odd for an academic to keep quoting this person over a long period of time in a range of different publications." Quoting a fictional character helped Navarro create the impression his hardline anti-China views were more widespread than they are, she says.