Red Menace: Why China Poses a Real Threat to Our Democracy

This country’s political class has argued furiously for the past few weeks about the latest alleged threat to our way of life. Democrats like the governor of California charge that the Texas legislature’s “gerrymandering” maneuver is a severe blow to American democracy. Some claim this redrawing of congressional districts to benefit Republicans in the midterm elections could even sound the death knell of elected government in the United States.

Yet it is hard to see how a political tactic named after James Madison’s vice president, Elbridge Gerry, and that has been used continuously for more than two centuries is suddenly a dire threat to the republic. Another story that emerged this week reveals a far greater threat: Communist China’s infiltration of American politics.

The New York Times released this week an explosive story about China’s influence over New York City politics. The Gray Lady reports that the Chinese Communist Party has coopted many of the city’s traditional Chinese-American associations. They reward politicians who dance to China’s tune and defeat those who offend Beijing by, among other things, meeting with Taiwanese officials or speaking out about Hong Kong. The campaign manager of one candidate who drew their ire told the Times that some community leaders advised the aspiring city council member to run ads holding a Chinese flag “to show what side she’s on.”

Many ethnic groups promote ties between their country of birth and their country of choice, and it is natural that some Chinese Americans would do the same. But lying to the IRS about political activity, as 19 of these groups reportedly have, is an entirely different matter.

This is not the first time the CCP has messed with the Empire State. One of Governor Kathy Hochul’s top aides is being prosecuted for, among other things, freezing out Taiwanese officials and diverting attention from the Uyghurs, whom the U.S. government designated as victims of a genocide in western China. Other Chinese citizens have been convicted of stalking and harassing Chinese exiles in the United States as part of the CCP’s “Operation Fox Hunt.”

The campaign of subversion extends far beyond the Big Apple: In San Francisco, diaspora groups harass and intimidate human rights protesters. Others lobby local governments in Southern California to adopt pro-Beijing policies.

These episodes reveal a key element of the CCP’s strategy to turn Americans against each other and prevent them from speaking openly and honestly about the greatest foreign threat facing the nation. Ever since its founding, the CCP’s “United Front” organizations have infiltrated its rivals and undermined them. The United Front turned Chiang Kai-shek’s army against itself and contributed to his utter defeat in China; the CCP hopes that its United Front will have similar results in the United States.

These kinds of attacks are particularly hard for Americans to defend against. For one thing, the Constitution protects speech, association, and petitions to the government, so some of these tactics are hard to prosecute. Attempts to crack down on pernicious foreign influence, moreover, invite charges of McCarthyism. Some of those accusations are made in bad faith, but as members of Donald Trump’s national security team discovered when they were scapegoated and fired this spring because of their ancestry, McCarthyism lingers on in the dark corners of American society.

Joe McCarthy was fonder of the bottle than of the truth, and the real spy catchers like Whittaker Chambers kept their distance from him. But he became a nationally consequential figure because the Communists had clearly infiltrated some of the most important parts of the American government, as Chambers revealed in the case of Alger Hiss. Attempts by the East Coast establishment to downplay the espionage threat empowered figures like McCarthy.

Fortunately, patriotic Americans today are doing important work to protect the country from these kinds of subversion. Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) describes the problem well in his latest book, Seven Things You Can’t Say About China. Organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council educate state and local governments about the steps they can take to protect themselves and their constituents.

Beijing wants to control how Americans think and speak, and will not stop until the consequences of its activities become too enormous for our democracy to continue. Exposing these agents of influence, prosecuting those who break the law, and making their Chinese masters pay a price is the best way to safeguard the republic and its citizens.

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