Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

JACQUELINE DEAL And MICHAEL LUCCI: America’s November Crash Course In Chinese Hybrid Warfare

(Wikimedia Commons/Public/Ermell)

Communist China’s military buildup is front-page news. From a September show-of-force parade in Beijing to the recent commissioning of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA’s) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is advertising his intent to displace the U.S. from the Pacific and overthrow the global Pax Americana.

On this side of the Pacific, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) wages an insidious hybrid war from the shadows of the American homeland, simultaneously sapping our societal strength while pre-positioning assets to disrupt, sabotage, and strike within the continental United States. State and federal lawmakers must rapidly execute long overdue reforms to protect the American homeland, or allow the CCP to control the future of our domestic security.

Last year, the House Select Committee on the CCP exposed the Chinese government’s role as the “prime mover” in underwriting America’s fentanyl crisis, the leading cause of death for military-age Americans. This month, three new revelations underscore China’s success in infiltrating our real estate, universities, and civil society organizations to achieve their military objectives.

First, the Daily Caller’s Philip Lenczycki uncovered that a Chinese-Canadian couple linked to CCP intelligence owns a trailer park abutting Whiteman Air Force base in Missouri. Whiteman hosts America’s entire B-2 stealth fleet – the same bombers whose June bombing run ruined Iran’s nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The trailer park is a perfect asset from which to collect intelligence or launch sabotage strikes. Ukraine’s “Operation Spiderweb” comes to mind, wherein drones launched from pre-positioned trucks to attack airfields deep inside Russia. Missouri’s legislature must scale up defenses as nearby Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska have already done, and the federal government should deploy a task force to investigate and root out China’s military pre-positioning across American real estate.

Next, University of Michigan-based Chinese researcher Yunqing Jian pled “guilty” to charges of smuggling a biological pathogen into the U.S. The fungus, fusarium graminearum, wipes out wheat, barley, maize and rice and causes vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in humans and livestock. Ill-advised academic partnerships with Communist China allow CCP-affiliated researchers to smuggle diseases into America while exfiltrating intellectual property from our campuses.

John Moolenaar, Chairman of the House Select Committee on CCP, is demanding overdue reforms to restrict Chinese financing and partnerships with U.S. universities. States like Texas show that a state overhaul can redefine the relationship between public universities and their Chinese counterparts.

Finally, the Trump Administration revealed that party-controlled Alibaba helps China’s military target and hack Americans through a declassified intelligence memo shared with Financial Times reporter Demetri Sevastopulo. The release showed that corporate access within the United States allows China to strengthen itself and weaken America, prompting Congressional leaders to reiterate calls for U.S. stock exchanges to delist Alibaba and other CCP-linked technology companies.

Alibaba’s U.S. political connections also run deep. As a member of NetChoice, the trade association representing big tech companies, Alibaba accesses and influences America’s most powerful state and federal policymakers at the expense of our national security.

From pre-positioning near military bases to infiltrating universities and corporate influence networks, China’s power projection extends far beyond the naval domain. Rather, it is engaged in extensive hybrid warfare within the U.S. to subvert our institutions and prepare military strikes. The Chinese Communist Party presents a whole-of-society threat that requires a comprehensive response from all levels of the American government and civil society. A failure to act will cede sovereignty over the land of the free to the producer and exporter of global tyranny.

Jacqueline Deal is an Advisory Board member of State Armor and president and CEO of the Long Term Strategy Group. Michael Lucci is State Armor’s founder and CEO.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Public/Ermell)