Washington Post Claims Genshin Impact Is a 'National Security Threat' to the US — Players Roast: 'Even Garlic Is a Threat to Them'

The Washington Post — yes, that Washington Post — published a piece essentially claiming that Genshin Impact, the anime gacha game where you pull for waifus and husbandos, poses a 'serious national security threat' to the United States. When an NGA user brought this tea to the forum, the comment section turned into an absolute carnival.

Genshin Impact being on the US radar isn't exactly new — the game has had its share of scrutiny over the years. But the Washington Post framing it as a literal 'national security threat' had players howling. One commenter cut right to the bone: 'Is US national security really THIS fragile?' Another dropped the classic meme — 'Even Chinese garlic is a national security threat to them' — pointing out that the label 'national security threat' has become so overused in US-China discourse that it's essentially lost all meaning.

The comment section wasn't all laughs, though. A highly upvoted reply (Floor #7) raised a genuinely concerning point: 'They're not satisfied with $300 million a year in protection money — guess we need to pay ten times that.' This refers to miHoYo's estimated annual revenue from the US market, and more importantly, the precedent set by the TikTok ban — where the US government essentially forced a Chinese-owned app to divest or be shut down. The commenter went further, posing a pointed hypothetical: if the US pulled the same move on miHoYo, would the company hand over its source code and North American operations, or would it fold its Shanghai HQ into a US entity?

Not everyone was purely laughing it off, though. One commenter pushed back: 'You keep flexing about cultural export through state media, and now you're surprised Western media took notice?' This sparked a mini-debate — was it China's own hype about 'cultural output' that drew American scrutiny, or is the US simply biased against Chinese companies regardless? Another commenter brought up Tencent: 'Tencent here — can the miHoYo stans also champion me as a patriotic company that got flagged too?' — dragging the conversation into broader US-China corporate geopolitics.

Some players zeroed in on deeper worries. One user questioned why miHoYo keeps pouring money into promoting Honkai: Star Rail in the US despite repeated spotlight moments: 'Do they think getting called out means they just haven't paid enough tribute?' Another was more blunt: 'I'm not a Genshin fan, but if it annoys the US, that's a W — unless miHoYo capitulates, in which case never mind.' And then there's the person who commented 'Whatever, the LGBT team will handle it' — a tongue-in-cheek reference to Genshin's separate overseas controversies around LGBTQ+ representation.

The sheer absurdity of the situation is the real kicker: a waifu gacha mobile game being discussed in the same breath as 'national security.' But given that the US has previously issued security warnings over Chinese garlic, cranes, and short-video apps, Genshin being next on the list feels almost inevitable. As one commenter eloquently put it: 'If a country's national security can be threatened by a video game, maybe the real problem is the security itself.'