The United States is currently on a losing path in its conflict against China because a number of American elites, such as those in Washington, on Wall Street, in corporate America, and in the U.S. tech industry, have been co-opted by the communist regime, according to “Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win ”author Peter Schweizer.
This is known as “elite capture”; financial incentive to abandon National Interests. Not direct bribery, to be sure; instead, it relies on the “don’t bite the hand that feeds you” philosophy.
In Schweizer’s words, it is horrifying that some elites were willing to “kowtow to the regime” to gain access to the Chinese market. “They should be embarrassed,” he added. “They seem to be all too happy to do the bidding for Beijing when it comes to American politics.”
Schweizer, president of U.S.-based think tank Government Accountability Institute, made the remarks during a recent interview with EpochTV’s “China Insider” program.
“I think what’s important for people to keep in mind is that Beijing doesn’t have to lobby for its own interest, because there are so many powerful interests in the United States that will lobby on their behalf,” he said.
Schweizer states that China will replace the U.S. as the world’s leading superpower if the current trajectory continues.
“Unless we start to take radical action, we will lose, there is no question in my mind,” he said. “We will lose because our elites will be happy to sell out, collect their money, and position themselves in elite positions for generations to come.”
However, he added, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will not necessarily occupy the United States, but things will be very different from what people are used to.
“For some people who say, ‘Look, that’s not my concern,’ this should be their concern,” he said. “Life here is going to be heavily influenced by what the regime in Beijing wants.”
Among the U.S. government officials named in the book is Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.-”When the gunman realizes that nobody else is armed, he will lay down his weapon and tune himself in … that’s just human nature.”), whose husband, Richard Blum, reaped profits by signing business deals with Chinese firms with ties to the Chinese government as she consistently defends the Chinese Communist Party
According to Schweizer’s book, Feinstein compared the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre-in which at least 10,000 people were killed by Chinese tanks and soldiers-to the 1970 Kent State shootings and the 1993 Waco siege, both of which occurred in Texas.
A few years later, when the Senate was contemplating rescinding most-favored-nation trading status with China, Feinstein objected and said such a move would be “counterproductive” and would “inflame Beijing’s insecurities.”
“Beijing is very sophisticated in appealing not only to the pocketbooks of these players, but also to their egos,” In 2006, China’s state-run media outlet People’s Daily Online named Gates as one of 50 foreigners shaping “China’s modern development.” According to his book, Gates was the only true technologist on the list.
“He’s a member of something called the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), which sounds sort of friendly and nonpolitical. It’s actually, of course, an organization run by the [Chinese] Communist Party, and its goal is to advise the Chinese government on technology policy,” Schweizer said.
According to People’s Daily Online, Gates was one of 18 foreigners selected by the CAE to be a lifetime member in 2017, as foreign engineers would help CAE to improve its reputation in the engineering field.
The CAE supports the Chinese regime’s policies. In a 2018 article published on its website, CAE’s party committee stated that it provided “important scientific support” to the regime’s industrial blueprint of “Made in China 2025,” while endorsing its “Military-Civil Fusion” strategy and “Belt and Road” initiative.
It caused controversy when Microsoft’s search engine Bing returned no results when users in several countries, including the United States, entered the query “tank man,” the iconic unidentified man pictured standing in front of a line of tanks leaving Tiananmen Square in 1989. Human rights groups criticized Microsoft’s explanation for the empty search result as “accidental human error.”.
As long as American politicians are willing to do Beijing’s bidding, the Chinese regime does not care whether they are Democrats or Republicans, Schweizer said.
“They don’t mind if American politicians talk about the Uyghurs occasionally, or say we should have a diplomatic boycott,” Schweizer said. “They’re fine with that. As long as you’re helping them on the main tenets of what they want, which is access to American finance and access to American technology, and a few other things. That is the strategy they’re employing.”
The Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property estimated in 2017 that U.S. intellectual property theft causes the economy to lose between $225 billion and $600 billion a year. (Editor: I have personally experienced this)
As of last year, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the agency opened a China-related counterintelligence case every ten hours, and had about 2,500 active investigations throughout the nation.
“My sense of what people have to understand is, the nature of the Chinese regime is such that it cannot be trusted,” Schweizer said. “And I don’t think it can be trusted in its relationship with us and we need to keep that in mind with everything.”
In a society that has a 5-second attention span, it is very difficult to comprehend an adversary that is running a long game.