Former NSA Analyst Warns of Chinese Leader’s Authoritarian Alliances and Anti-Western Strategy

A paramilitary police officer stands guard in Tiananmen Square after a plenary session of the National People's Congress in the adjacent Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 11, 2018. Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images

A recent report by a former NSA intelligence analyst believes that Xi has spent 12 years ruining China’s image and reputation and accused Xi of being an enemy of Western countries and values.

On May 17, former National Security Agency senior intelligence analyst and counterintelligence officer John R. Schindler published an article in the Washington Examiner titled “Xi takes off the mask: The Beijing tyrant has spent 12 years wrecking China’s image.” It claimed that the CCP leader has reversed progress and damaged China’s image over the past 12 years.

Mr. Schindler described Xi as a thorough CCP member who, as party leader, focused on consolidating his power. Under Xi’s leadership, the CCP’s rule became stricter, with less tolerance for internal dissent even compared to former CCP leader Mao Zedong.

The article claims that Xi often compares himself to Mao and, like Mao, encourages a cult of personality within the party. According to CCP propaganda, Mao’s achievement was founding the nation, and Xi is strengthening it.

“Xi’s words and deeds make it plain that his aim is global hegemony, with China replacing America in setting the international order,” Mr. Schindler wrote.

He pointed out that in 2020, FBI Director Christopher Wray declared that the Chinese espionage threat is “the greatest long-term threat” to the future of the United States.

“In his dozen years in nearly complete control of China, Xi has exploded all illusions that the most populous nation on Earth, and its second biggest economy, can be regarded as any kind of partner for the future. He has allied himself with the world’s pariahs, including Russia, Iran, and North Korea, and some of its lesser nuisances and has detached itself from rule-of-law liberal democracies, which it now confronts. It has emerged as a threat comparable to or greater than was posed by the Soviet Union in the Cold War. It is as implacable an enemy of our nation and values, and it is increasingly well armed,” Mr. Schindler summed up in his article.

Xi’s Alliance with Russia

On May 16, a day before the article was published, Xi met with visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr. Putin chose Beijing as his first destination after securing his fifth presidential term.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Xi has consistently refused to condemn Russia’s actions. During this period, cooperation between China and Russia has reached unprecedented levels.

Following Western sanctions after the invasion, Russia’s economy decoupled from the West, and the CCP played an important role in supporting Russia’s economy, from increased trade to buying Russian oil and natural gas.

After Mr. Putin spoke to Xi, both sides issued a joint statement to deepen their “comprehensive strategic partnership” and strengthen cooperation in trade, energy, and technology. Russia claimed that China holds an objective and fair stance on the Ukraine issue and voiced its firm support for the CCP’s measures to achieve national reunification, including opposition to any form of Taiwan independence.

The joint statement mentioned the United States 13 times, accusing it of “hegemonic acts” in maintaining global stability and peace. In response to the U.S. deployment of land-based missile systems in the Asia-Pacific region, China and Russia stated they would strengthen coordination and response.

According to Mr. Schindler, after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the United States became the dominant force in maintaining world order, which Xi aims to displace as part of his global strategy.

The article claims that since becoming the CCP leader in 2012, Xi has led China on a path of confrontation rather than cooperation with the West, especially against the United States. While the CCP has so far avoided open war with the West, it prefers espionage, large-scale cyberattacks, and political influence operations, which are easier to deny.

Lai Jianping, a former Chinese human rights lawyer and president of the Canada-based Federation for a Democratic China, told The Epoch Times on May 24 that he believes “Xi Jinping’s actions over the past dozen years, especially recently, in forming a political alliance with Russian dictator Putin, have awakened the United States and other Western countries.”

Xing Ning contributed to this report.