OPINION:
While commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with an ostentatious communist military parade in Beijing earlier this month, Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping was choreographing the dance of the world’s most nefarious dictators.
For the first time, standing with Mr. Xi were Russian ruler Vladimir Putin, North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian — the Four Horsemen of this century’s axis of tyranny, which China is exploiting to boost its global influence in confrontation with the U.S. and its allies.
Overseeing his troops goose-stepping toward Tiananmen Square, Mr. Xi spewed anti-U.S. propaganda about “taking a stand against hegemonism and power politics” when, in fact, he is responsible for spawning this century’s Cold War.
Beijing is militarizing the South China Sea while infringing on the economic rights of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan; conducting massive hacking operations including into the Office of Personnel Management to steal U.S. government employee data; counterfeiting Western products and stealing trade secrets through espionage and by requiring foreign companies to reveal technology secrets with Chinese companies in return for market access; using its “One Belt, One Road” initiative as cover for debt trap diplomacy; and mounting sophisticated cyberespionage attacks on U.S. data and intellectual property, most recently with its advanced persistent threat actor Salt Typhoon. Chinese theft of intellectual property costs the U.S. economy billions of dollars each year.
China has long claimed Taiwan to be its “breakaway province” to be reunited by force, if necessary, despite having never ruled it. Illegally annexing Taiwan would extend China’s reach into the East China Sea, threaten Japan and Guam, and enable China to subsume Taiwan’s high-tech industry, including its world-class semiconductor factories.
Closely allied with Cuba and Venezuela, China is also actively encroaching on U.S. commercial and national security interests in the Western Hemisphere.
At the turn of the century, China joined the World Trade Organization and then proceeded to break all the rules governing international trade. While blocking imports, China flooded overseas markets, especially in the U.S. and Western Europe, with comparatively cheaper goods.
Implementing its state-run communist economic model, China spends hundreds of billions of dollars on industrial subsidies that have threatened the European Union’s clean energy strategy. This is especially true for solar panels, where China controls 80% of the world’s manufacturing capacity, and global electric vehicle sales, for which China has built a 60% share.
That’s why Europe suffers a $500 billion trade deficit with China.
Violating internationally recognized standards for labor and preventing its population from enjoying the standards of living that should be commensurate with its rising gross domestic product, China artificially drives down prices to gain overwhelming control over rare earth and critical mineral processing and other key markets.
The Middle East trades more with China than the U.S. China established its first overseas base in Djibouti and negotiated strategic partnerships with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait. Chinese companies in Oman, which has a free trade agreement with the U.S., flood the U.S. market with re-exports of high technology while evading U.S. tariffs and scrutiny.
Nothing is more important for U.S. national security than a comprehensive strategy to defend, deter and counter Mr. Xi’s aggressive plan to build a new world order, where the Chinese Communist Party exterminates the principles of liberty, freedom and democracy enshrined in our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
It all starts with the U.S. intelligence community, which is on the hook to steal Mr. Xi’s secrets, especially his plans and intentions to wield China’s military, economic and diplomatic power against us.
We have no reason to go it alone. China’s coercive diplomacy, unfair trade practices and military aggression threaten a multitude of nations for which China’s state-sponsored tyranny is anathema. Our allies and partners can be powerful force multipliers so that the U.S. conducts its China policy more effectively and, especially with respect to our financial and military resources, efficiently.
Mr. Xi wants China’s adversaries to be weak and divided because he knows that together we are stronger and better equipped to protect internationally recognized borders, freedom of navigation, and the free exchange of goods and services on which the U.S. and global economies rely. If there’s a silver lining for what too often appears to be hopelessly divided American politics, it’s that Democrats and Republicans should find common ground on promoting U.S. global leadership rather than suffer the consequences of Chinese hegemony.
• Daniel N. Hoffman is a retired clandestine services officer and former chief of station with the Central Intelligence Agency. His combined 30 years of government service included high-level overseas and domestic positions at the CIA. He has been a Fox News contributor since May 2018. He can be reached at danielhoffman@yahoo.com.
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