If President Trump is not re-elected, he has no incentive to not make Joe Biden pay a price for the perfidy of himself, his family, and the Democrat party with regard to the Chinese Communist Party.
Axios reported yesterday that sources within the Administration confirm that Pres. Trump will cement his legacy as having sounded the alarm about the malevolence of the Chinese regime in its attitude towards the United States by announcing a series of sanctions against the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army.
The announcement will be coupled with a report by Director of National Security John Ratcliffe calling on China to account for its record of human rights violations, espionage, and hegemonic intentions in East Asia and the Western Pacific Ocean.
He’ll try to make it politically untenable for the Biden administration to change course as China acts aggressively from India to Hong Kong to Taiwan, and the pandemic triggers a second global wave of shutdowns.
- Watch for National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe to publicly describe in granular detail intelligence about China’s nefarious actions inside the U.S.
Details: Trump officials plan to sanction or restrict trade with more Chinese companies, government entities and officials for alleged complicity in human rights violations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, or threatening U.S. national security.
- The administration also will crack down on China for its labor practices beyond Xinjiang forced labor camps.
- But don’t expect big new moves on Taiwan or more closures of Chinese consulates in the U.S., officials say.
National Security Council spokesperson John Ullyot told Axios, “Unless Beijing reverses course and becomes a responsible player on the global stage, future U.S. presidents will find it politically suicidal to reverse President Trump’s historic actions.”
“Future US Presidents” should be read as “Joe Biden if he’s the next US President.”
Catherine Herridge followed up on this report on Twitter, stating that the Axios story had been confirmed to CBS News.
NEW: Senior administration official confirms to @CBSNews as accurate, adding @DNI_Ratcliffe will publicly detail the “depth + breadth of Chinese espionage + influence operations targeting the US” FIRST reported @axios https://t.co/Kv5yAREHSE
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) November 15, 2020
There is no way for Joe Biden to escape his association with a “pro-China” foreign policy in the second term of the Obama Administration. We don’t even need to go into the business entanglements of Hunter Biden and various Chinese government-backed entities. This announcement coming from the Trump Administration will stamp this brand across the forehead of a Biden Administration if it takes any steps to undo that which Trump does on the way out. It’s the same tactic the Obama Administration used against Trump with regard to Russia.
The difference is that the hostile intentions of the Chinese in conducting intelligence and espionage activities inside the United States is not open to debate.
Senior administration officials are discussing expanding a Defense Department list of Chinese companies deemed to have ties to the Chinese military.
- An executive order issued last week barred U.S. investment in 31 such companies, and any additions would likely face a similar restriction.
- Officials plan to target China’s growing use of forced labor in the highly competitive fishing industry. Coerced and unpaid labor isn’t just a human rights concern — it can also give Chinese fisheries an advantage over rivals in an industry with geopolitical significance.
- Trump officials have been looking to move more hawkish China experts into senior roles across the government, another senior official added.
What they’re saying: “Director Ratcliffe will continue playing a leading role, in coordination with other national security principals, in delivering a necessary mindset shift from the Cold War and post-9/11 counterterrorism eras to a focus on great power competition with an adversarial China,” DNI senior adviser Cliff Sims tells Axios.
The Trump Administration is absolutely correct to take the position that there is no “private” enterprise in China, and to treat every Chinese-owned business operating in the United States as an asset of the Chinese Communist Party on an intelligence basis. Every Chinese business allowed to operate inside the United States, or in partnership with United States businesses, does so only with the permission of the Chinese government. Suggesting otherwise is merely a fiction meant to deflect attention away from the fact that corporate American has been in business with the Chinese government for three decades in order to reduce production costs.
It is long past time for the United States to face the one truly hostile actor in the world with designs on confronting the US as the source of all Western global power within our sphere of influence. The Chinese Communist Party is committed to supplanting the United States as the world’s leading superpower — both economically and militarily. The Chinese are the single existential threat to the US position in global politics.
If Donald Trump is a one-term President, this will be the most consequential act he will have taken in his four year time in office.