The Existential Threat From Communist China: Insights From a Former FBI Crisis Officer

Banners are displayed at the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco to condemn the Chinese Communist Party on China’s National Day on Oct. 1, 2020. Ilene Eng/The Epoch Times

Commentary

The threat from communist China is real.

A quick look at The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s (USCC) annual report to Congress confirms this. The agency has identified various threats to the country, including the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ever-evolving cyberwarfare and espionage campaigns. The report emphasizes the CCP’s desire to become a “cyber superpower.”

In this race for cyber dominance, China possesses “an asymmetric advantage over the United States,” largely because Beijing remains unwilling “to play by the same rules,” according to the report. CCP-backed cyber operatives now ”pose a serious threat to U.S. government, business and critical infrastructure networks in the new and highly competitive cyber domain.” As China continues to develop “sophisticated offensive cyber capabilities,” the United States must prepare itself for intellectual property theft at an “industrial scale.”

The alarm is being sounded, but is anyone actually listening?

For further comment on the threat from the Chinese regime, I reached out to Jim DiOrio, a former FBI crisis manager who is very familiar with the CCP’s activities. A man who dedicated much of his life to assessing threats from abroad, DiOrio told me the regime is certainly “the biggest threat facing this generation and America’s future generations.”

The CCP, he added, is “ruthless, cutthroat, and committed in every aspect of what society considers ‘success.’” Echoing the USCC report, DiOrio insists that “they are worthy adversaries who follow no rules but their own.” The CCP has “threatened our health, our way of life, and our security.” Rather worryingly, the threats, according to DiOrio, go well beyond cyberwarfare.

This brings us to Mexico, a country with close ties to China. As you read this, Mexican cartels are busy killing Americans with fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. Last year, about 71,000 people died from overdosing on these drugs that are designed to mimic the effects of natural opioids. This year saw overdose deaths rise by some 15 percent. As I have documented, although the drugs come from Mexico, the ingredients come from China.

DiOrio noted that China is a “huge supplier of products that are used to produce deadly, illegal drugs—especially fentanyl—that is killing our citizens at a more than absurd rate.” Moreover, he added, “the CCP launders money for the drug cartels—that is a fact.”

He’s right. It does.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent checks pedestrians' documentation at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Ysidro, Calif., on Oct. 2, 2019. China was the first country to manufacture illegal fentanyl for the U.S. market, but the problem surged when trafficking through Mexico began around 2005. Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images

Meanwhile, less than 50 miles southeast of the Florida coast, the CCP also exerts a nefarious influence. Home to white sandy beaches and cryptocurrency con artists, the Bahamas is also home to countless Chinese investments. Of all the investments there, DiOrio encourages Americans to check out the Baha Mar, a 1,000-acre resort that oozes opulence. Built by Beijing-backed contractors, the CCP views the resort as a “state-owned asset.” The CCP, in DiOrio’s opinion, “is trying its best to damage the U.S. relationship with the Bahamas to exploit Bahamians and their proximity to the U.S.”

Again, he’s right. It is.

Sadly, its efforts appear to be working. Last year, the Bahamian government signed a multimillion-dollar economic and technical agreement with Beijing. On closer inspection, right across the Caribbean region, from Grenada to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the CCP is investing heavily. This has been the case for more than a decade. If China can’t control the United States directly, it will do all in its power to control its neighbors.

China’s extended spending spree in the Caribbean (as well as Africa and the Middle East) appears to be part of a broader push to control the world’s ports. Considering 90 percent of the world’s goods are carried by sea, this is a point that is worth repeating. In the Bahamas, China has invested billions in the Freeport Container Port, the country’s largest port. The CCP has also paid tens of millions to construct a port off the Bahamian island of Abaco.

Downtown Nassau, Bahamas, on Dec. 3, 2022. Nicholas Ewing/ The Epoch Times

As is clear to see, China is undermining the United States on many fronts. Unfortunately, if Joshua Kurlantzick, a senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of “Beijing’s Global Media Offensive: China’s Uneven Campaign to Influence Asia and the World,” is to be believed, it has gotten plenty of help from U.S. media outlets.

In a recent interview with Radio Free Asia, the researcher discussed how the CCP has used “pernicious advertorials” to influence the American public. The CCP has put “China Watch inserts,” little more than glorified propaganda, into a host of major publications, he cautioned. These include the likes of The Wall Street Journal and the LA Times. This is part of Beijing’s desire to create and control the overarching narrative.

Regarding the dangers from China, I asked DiOrio, what, if anything, has the U.S. government gotten right. “Right, hmmm, not really sure,” he responded. Not exactly an answer that should fill any American reader with a sense of comfort.

All, though, isn’t completely lost. The FBI, he told me, “has really upped their efforts when it comes to investigating and prosecuting targets. We have learned more and more about the CCP’s tradecraft and techniques.”

Of course, the fact that the FBI is dedicating more resources to analyzing the threat from the Chinese regime is worth celebrating. However, one can’t help but feel that this fresh sense of urgency has arrived about a decade too late.

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