4 Steps the US Can Take to Win the Competition With China

Chinese leader Xi Jinping (front) walks with members of the Chinese Communist Party's new Politburo Standing Committee, the nation's top decision-making body, as they meet the media in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Oct. 23, 2022. Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

President Joe Biden signed the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act on Dec. 29, 2022, approving $1.7 trillion in federal spending into law. Not many people are discussing an important section of the intelligence bill, which “requires reporting on the wealth and corrupt activities of the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”

This is a significant move and the first time the United States has investigated the corruption of CCP officials through legislation. To this day, almost none of the CCP officials joined the CCP or became government officials out of their belief in communism but did so because the CCP’s unsupervised system gave them the possibility of unbridled corruption. In other words, the ability to reap personal benefits is the only reason they defend the CCP regime. If the United States were to investigate the corruption of top CCP officials and impose future penalties, this would compromise their loyalty to the corrupt regime.

In September 2021, a friend picked me up from the San Francisco airport, and on the way to a forum, she told me that she was worried that the CCP would attack Taiwan. As I’ve explained in my previous articles (here and here), I don’t believe it will happen. But there was no time to give a lengthy analysis in the car, so I told her to pay attention to one thing. We should see a mass exodus of corrupt CCP officials’ money and assets from the United States before a war breaks out, and the families of these CCP officials will also leave the United States quickly, because once the CCP invades Taiwan, Washington will inevitably sanction the officials and freeze their assets.

I told her, “If this doesn’t happen, you can rest assured that an armed reunification with Taiwan won’t occur.”

It isn’t unprecedented for the United States to freeze the assets of CCP officials. In September 2018, Washington sanctioned the General Armaments Department of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and its minister, Lt. Gen. Li Shangfu. Under the U.S. ban, Li couldn’t obtain a U.S. visa, all his assets and interests in the United States were frozen, and U.S. companies and individuals weren’t allowed to conduct transactions with him. Washington was able to quickly get a hold of the assets that Li and his wife owned in the United States.

In the competition between the United States and the CCP, the United States has an overwhelming economic, technological, and moral advantage. On my YouTube channel on June 2, 2019, I suggested four steps that the United States can take to defeat the CCP.

Freeze CCP Officials’ Assets

Washington should investigate, publicize, and freeze the assets of corrupt CCP officials in the United States. Then the United States can tell the Chinese people that these illegally acquired assets would be used to reconstruct China after it becomes a free society. In addition to weakening the loyalty of these corrupt officials to the CCP, the Party wouldn’t be able to use the freezing of assets in the United States to incite the Chinese to hate the United States because, after all, the money was taken from the people and could be returned to them in the future. It would also make the Chinese realize that corrupt officials aren’t one of them.

In addition to the Omnibus Spending Bill 2023, which Biden signed into law, the United States and its allies could cooperate further to investigate and freeze CCP officials’ overseas assets through the Global Magnitsky Act.

Take Down China’s Cyber Firewall

Beijing relies on censoring information to brainwash the Chinese people. Most popular search engines, social media, and media outlet websites, such as Google, YouTube, Facebook, and so forth, are all inaccessible in China. When the Chinese people discover the crimes committed by the CCP, they'll be determined to end totalitarianism and move toward freedom.

Part of the Chinese Communist Party's army of "internet trolls" in an undated leaked photo in Harbin, Fangzheng County, China. The Epoch Times

A free China can’t invade Taiwan. The United States may have spent hundreds of billions of dollars in military spending to deter the CCP from invading Taiwan. Still, the United States can turn China into a free society by spending only a few hundred million dollars to tear down the CCP’s “Information Berlin Wall.”

The CCP closely monitors the Chinese people’s every word and action because it fears that they'll rise up and fight for their freedom. All encrypted instant messaging software, such as Signal and Telegram, are blocked. So the Chinese people can’t coordinate on a large scale to form a sizable protest. But once the firewall is torn down, the Chinese can use overseas social media to exchange messages and ideas and hold virtual assemblies. This is an essential piece of the puzzle for the Chinese to be able to mount a major protest.

Impose High-Tech Embargo

Big data, artificial intelligence, and facial recognition put the Chinese people in cyber prison. High-tech embargoes can free them from the CCP’s ubiquitous surveillance and cripple its ability to control the population.

Trade Must Be Linked to Human Rights

The United States can advance human rights through trade. If the United States can play the human rights card in a trade war, it stands on the moral high ground. And the Chinese people, who are heavily influenced by communism, will gradually realize that human rights are essential for maintaining a civil society. In other words, the trade war is beneficial not only to the Americans but also to the Chinese. The trade war shouldn’t be aimed at China but at the CCP. This can actually defuse the nationalism incited by the CCP in the trade war.

Sun Tzu said: “For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.”

I’m glad to see that the first and third measures are being realized after I proposed these four suggestions three years ago. We can do more by implementing all four steps and hoping that we can win the competition without fighting.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.