Who came up with this usage for optics, anyway?

Saw an episode of an old favorite - it was one from the earlier seasons, one that featured a purple bug with a neck snorkel and the words "peaceful coexistence." It brought to mind this issue, and I think I managed a snicker at the episode's continued connection to current events. Is it too cynical of me to view the minister's statement as fictional as the neck-snorkel bug?

Reading an article like this, which contradicts within the first sentence an article like this (though I will grant a virus hasn't discriminated between 脱空汉 and other folk so far*); or an article like this, which ties into points in an article like this (writing more rules to break?); or even looking at the 欺负, 欺侮, 欺压 sort of actions "individual countries" commit that aren't related to tech (I hope that last bit's more shock fodder than actual events, but I also know where I'm likely to lean, sickles) - these highlight the fiction all the more brightly, and all are fresh reinforcement for the conviction that if these folks seek to earn contempt, it's optics like these that'll do the trick.

(Speaking of sub-optimal optics, I should include a mention of those whose output would drag a colonizer in a joke, but be perfectly comfortable with lionizing another so long as it pads the bottom line.)

*Tested out the hanzi in this bit, 微软. Do the choices in the pinyin conversion change depending on frequency of use?