Psychologically undermining US efforts to counter communist China
The Biden-Harris administration has been conducting what amounts to a scorched earth policy since Kamala Harris and the Democrats were routed by President Trump and the Republicans on Election Day 2024. Scorched earth refers to a military tactic of destroying everything that enables the enemy to wage war. Prussian general and military theorist Carl von Clausewitz pointed out in 1832 in his treatise On War that war is the “continuation of politics by other means.” In this instance, the Democrats are engaged in political warfare and appear to be doing what they can to sabotage the second Trump presidency in ways similar to, but not matching, what they did during the first Trump presidency.
The actions have ranged from head-scratching and seemingly random pardons of “nonviolent offenders” to more overt gifts to potential foreign adversaries. Virtually all of those last-minute actions are paying dividends to communist China in one way or another.
Let us examine that claim in detail.
LAST-MINUTE GIFTS TO CHINA
Biden administration gifts to China are certainly nothing new. Some of those have been detailed here, here, here, and here. The gifts range from open borders (which facilitates Chinese-produced fentanyl trafficking across the Mexican borders) to shutting down oil pipelines (which plays into China’s green tech production domination) to providing shade to Chinese diplomats involved in kidnapping and silencing Chinese dissidents overseas (as reported by The New York Post).
Here are a few examples of the latest Biden-Harris gifts to the communists and their likely intended effects:
Mass pardons and clemencies of various convicted criminals. The random actions undermine the rule of law and exacerbate divisiveness among Americans. Anything that undermines Americans’ confidence in their government and legal system aids China in its quest to supplant the US as the world’s superpower.
Pardons for three convicted Chinese. In a gift to China, Biden pardoned Chinese intelligence officer Yanjun Xu (who ran an intel collection network focused on stealing US technology and proprietary information), one of his operatives Ji Chaoqun (who focused on recruiting additional spies and collecting intelligence on the US military), and a third person Jin Shanlin (a doctoral student at SMU with ties to senior CCP members who was convicted for having 47,000 images and files of child pornography on his computer).
Hunter Biden’s blanket pardon. This unprecedented pardon effectively masks over ten years of Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Chinese business concerns connected directly to the CCP (and almost certainly unprosecuted FARA violations and potentially other crimes). Perhaps more important to the Chinese is that the pardon also masks Joe Biden’s own involvement with some of those same Chinese business concerns on behalf of his son, making it more difficult for the incoming Trump administration to discern, investigate, and elucidate the corruption and what exactly that corruption bought the CCP.
Permission granted to California and 11 other states to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035. This is just the latest bit of proof that the Biden administration is intent on phasing out America’s long-held strengths in oil, natural gas, and gasoline-power vehicle manufacturing while encouraging Americans to invest in green technology and buy electric vehicles that require components that contain rare earth elements. China gains much from this Biden gift, having a stranglehold on REE production, dominates production of green technology and being the world’s largest producer of electric vehicles.
A five-year extension of the US-China science pact. The original pact was signed during the Jimmy Carter administration and has resulted in US technology transfer that has helped modernize the Chinese People’s Liberation Army over the past 45 years, including torpedo, missile, satellite, and dual use technologies. This long-standing cooperative effort dovetails with 224 reported instances of Chinese espionage directed at the US since 2000 and “more than 1200 cases of intellectual property theft lawsuits brought by US companies against Chinese entities in either the US or China,” as reported by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The science pact is simply another Chinese mechanism to wrest military and technological secrets from the US.
Chinese semiconductor company removed from US Dept of Defense sanctions list. China’s Global Times crowed on 18 December that DoD “removed Chinese firm Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. China (AMEC) from its so-called Chinese Military Company (CMC) list.” Per the official website, “Section 1260H of the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2021 requires the Secretary of Defense to publish (until December 31, 2030) an annual list of Chinese military companies that are operating in the Unites States,” i.e., the CMC list. To make the CMC list, a Chinese company must be either (1) Directly or indirectly owned or controlled by or acting as an agent of the People’s Liberation Army or any other organization subordinate to the Central Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party, or (2) A military-civil fusion contributor to the Chinese defense industrial base (i.e., supporting commercial technology transfer that benefits the PLA). AMEC produces strategic chipmaking capabilities that support China’s semiconductor industry. Exactly why AMEC was removed from the CMC remains a mystery. Note: as of 31 January 2024, there were over 140 Chinese companies on DoD’s CMC list.
THE PLA THREAT DEFLATION PSYOP
Perhaps the most insidious and dangerous Biden administration gift to China was the publishing of the DoD’s annual report to Congress, Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2024, which contains elements of Chinese threat deflation despite the obvious continuing improvements in PLA force structure, capabilities, nuclear armaments, and logistics support.
Threat deflation has been a continuing Chinese psychological and political warfare operation aimed at US decision-makers for decades.
As a result of the domination of US-China policy for the past 50 years by the “Kissinger school of Chinese engagement,” national defense strategy and policy makers (including military flag and general officers), intelligence community and State Dept apparatchiks, pro-China think-tankers, various media personalities (e.g., Thomas Friedman at The New York Times), and others have made careers of woefully underestimating, overtly underplaying, erring greatly in their future predictions of, and purposely underreporting the growth of the Chinese military, space, and dual-use capabilities to Congress and the American people. This is the very essence of threat deflation for the purpose of engagement with the Chinese in the realm of economics and trade while minimizing the threat to US national security by the rapid modernization and expansion of the People’s Liberation Army.
To this corrupting multi-decadal mindset must be added the decidedly pro-Chinese administrations of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as well as their near ruination of the US military’s flag and general officer corps through overt politicization and implementation of destructive DEI policies that sacrificed experienced warfighters at the altar of identity politics.
While identifying the latest PLA force structure and capability improvements in that 182-page report (e.g., “the PRC has the largest navy in the world, with a battle force of over 370 ships and submarines, including more than 140 major surface combatants”), the spirit of threat deflation and accommodation nevertheless wormed its way into the document.
Key paragraphs in the “Special Topics” section of the report convey the notion that “widespread corruption” within the PLA and Chinese defense industry has undermined the PLA’s ability to execute. A key sentence: “In 2023, the PLA experienced a new wave of corruption-related investigations and removals of senior leaders which may have disrupted its progress toward stated 2027 modernization goals.” The report implies that the removal during the latter half of 2024 of fifteen “high-ranking military officers and defense industry executives” (and possibly others not yet known) somehow undermines Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s ability to effectively command and control the PLA in order to project power and intimidate other countries. Furthermore, the report implies that the corruption could be so widespread that the PLA is years away from developing “a professional fighting force” (one of their 2027 goals).
Seasoned China watchers note that “corruption” has been used by Xi Jinping as a means of effectuating ideological control and ensuring loyalty among senior military officers, as well as in rooting out and sidelining those who disagree with Xi’s leadership, strategy, and plans. Rather than an indication of widespread corruption that undermines PLA mission readiness and combat effectiveness, the removal of a few key dissenters (plus the renewed emphasis on political and ideological training for the PLA officer corps that was also documented in the report) could actually signal that Xi is tightening up the PLA chain of command to ensure loyalty and prompt and proper execution of future orders (e.g., for the cross-strait invasion of Taiwan).
Meanwhile:
- China just launched the amphibious ship Sichuan, the first ship of the 076 type, which displaces 40,000 tons and equipped with an electromagnetic catapult which will allow fighter jets to launch directly off its deck (AP News).
- China has launched 1,000 satellites into orbit, including some capable of maneuvering in geosynchronous orbit with unknown missions (which is unusual) (Air and Space Forces).
- China has launched the world’s first “self-driving” satellites that can maintain or change their flight course without any help from the ground (South China Morning Post).
- The PLA’s second stealth warplane, touted as the answer to the American F-35, made its debut in November (South China Morning Post).
- China’s newly re-engined J-20 Mighty Dragon stealth fighter, touted as the answer to the American F-22, presents a serious challenge to America’s traditional air superiority in the Western Pacific (South China Morning Post).
- For the first time in 44 years, China test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean (AP News).
- The Defense Intelligence Agency released a report entitled “Nuclear Challenges 2024” that states that China is “rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal” with a goal of ultimately achieving parity with the US (Zerohedge/DIA).
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
The Biden administration’s exit strategy includes giving gifts to communist China. Perhaps the most insidious and far-reaching is continuing to downplay the Chinese threat in favor of “engagement and competition.”
Communist China has run a threat deflation psyop against the US for decades. Their purpose is to lull US policymakers to sleep while the PLA rapidly modernizes and ultimately eclipses the capabilities of the US military in all ways. A cottage industry of Americans in the “China engagement school” have undermined US vigilance with respect to the Chinese strategic threat in favor of selfish business and commercial interests.
The latest DoD annual report to Congress on Chinese military capabilities incorporates threat deflation (“corruption in the PLA”), which has been dutifully amplified and reinforced by the legacy media, including the Associated Press, Defense.gov, CNN, The Washington Post, and Reuters.
China shows no sign of relinquishing its stated goal of world domination at the expense of the US. To the contrary, the PLA continues to deploy new and improved capabilities that will eventually deliver military superiority to the communists and the attendant ability to intimidate other countries in ways the likes of which the world has never before seen.
The CCP certainly got what it paid for in corrupting US decision-makers like Joe Biden over the years.
The end.
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