Commentary
The Chinese regime and Russia are accelerating secret efforts to weaken the United States through deadly fentanyl, hacking, and intrusions on critical infrastructure such as ports, water, and electric utilities.
One of the most damaging efforts so far is Beijing’s support for illegal
fentanyl exports to the United States, which kills over 200 Americans daily. New evidence found on China’s websites, and later scrubbed, shows that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is purposefully subsidizing the export of fentanyl precursors that are illegal in both China and the United States. The precursors have no other purpose but to produce illegal drugs. This CCP campaign is arguably a form of
genocide against U.S. citizens.
The House Committee on the CCP released a
report on April 16 showing that China produces almost all illegal fentanyl precursors, subsidizes fentanyl precursor production, and instead of cooperating with U.S. counternarcotics authorities when it receives requests for assistance on a particular suspect, warns the suspect about the investigation.
In some cases, the Chinese regime allegedly profits directly from illegal sales through ownership stakes in the illicit drug manufacturers. “The fentanyl crisis has helped CCP-tied Chinese organized criminal groups become the world’s premier money launderers, enriched the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China’s] chemical industry, and had a devastating impact on Americans,” according to the committee.
On April 17, CNBC reported details of increased
cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure, including a whopping 750 million attacks on the Port of Los Angeles in 2023. Over 80 percent of cargo cranes used in U.S. ports are made in China. Many include Chinese software believed to have built-in vulnerabilities that could give adversaries the ability to spy on military cargo shipments, for example, or remotely hijack the loading and unloading of naval and merchant marine ships, creating chaos in U.S. supply chains and military operations.
Google found links between
Russian military intelligence and a January hack of a Texas water filtration plant. A pro-
Iranian group is believed to have hacked a Pennsylvania water plant in November. U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan has called on water companies to do more to secure their cyber operations, including through more secure remote control of water and sewage plants. Given the
150,000 public water authorities in the United States, many of which are cash-strapped, securing them will likely require a national program.
A newly revealed secret Russian document details its hybrid war plans to weaken the United States, according to
The Washington Post on April 17. The foreign ministry
document, a secret addendum to a 2023 public statement of policy approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin, appears authentic in part because of its consistency with that statement. When reached for comment by the Post, the Russian foreign ministry did not deny its authenticity.
The public policy statement calls the West’s global ambitions “hegemonistic.” Russia seeks to change the world order to give dictatorships like itself, China, and Iran more power. Moscow wants the West to “accept the complicated realities of the multipolar world” and is, in effect, threatening nuclear war—most likely against his “brothers” in Ukraine first—if it does not get its way. Mr. Putin reiterated his nuclear threat as recently as March 13.
According to the Post’s translation, the document includes sweeping strategies across “the military-political, economic and trade and informational psychological spheres.” Russia’s ambitious goal, according to the document, is to revise the U.S.-led world order supported by a “coalition of unfriendly countries.” This likely includes the United Kingdom, France, Poland, and several Baltic states that have taken the lead in supporting Ukraine in the war.
The Russian foreign ministry expects the outcome of the war to “determine the outlines of the future world order,” according to the document. To that end, the ministry recommends an “offensive information campaign” and the creation of “a mechanism for finding the vulnerable points of [unfriendly states’] external and internal policies with the aim of developing practical steps to weaken Russia’s opponents.”
Until the United States more effectively counters Chinese, Russian, and Iranian aggression against us and our allies, we will be seen as weak and irresolute and, therefore, a tempting target. Whichever country can replace the U.S.-led international system with its own version will reap the economic benefits that we, in all our democratic idealism and support for the sovereignty of nation-state members, have nobly gone without. The next country to take the reins, if there is a next country, will likely not be so honorable.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
