Even though the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is responsible through its laboratory in Wuhan for the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the communist totalitarian dictatorship has turned this worldwide crisis into a great benefit.
Further, as countries responded to the pandemic, Chinese and Indian troops clashed along their disputed border in the Himalayan region, China escalated tensions in the illegally claimed South China Sea, further tightened its totalitarian control over Hong Kong, and militarily provoked Taiwan.
Exploiting a global crisis in pursuit of its global strategy is not a novel approach for the Chinese Communist dictatorship. Following the 2008 financial crisis, the CCP exploited the recession to advance its global strategy.
Similarly, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the United States rapidly distributed emergency loans as part of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to help struggling businesses, the dictatorship saw an opportunity for American money and took it.
From a sample of PPP recipients, de La Bruyère and Picarsic identified more than 125 recipients of emergency loans from the Small Business Administration and Treasury Department that the Chinese dictatorship’s entities owned or invested in. More than $1 million in loans were secured by at least 32 entities controlled by the Chinese regime.
The report stated, “These [People’s Republic of China] entities span State-owned enterprises (SOEs); companies with ties to China’s military and military-civil fusion programs; companies that the US government has identified as national security threats; companies complicit in China’s genocide against the Uighur minority in Xinjiang; and media outlets owned by, or that take direction from, the CCP.”
For example, the U.S. Department of Defense has published a list of companies that it has identified as being connected to communist China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army. At least eight entities affiliated with companies on the DOD’s list received Paycheck Protection Program loans.
Moreover, according to the report, “The identified recipients linked to People’s Republic of China-based ownership span critical and strategic industries including aerospace and defense; pharmaceuticals and medical technology; legacy and emerging automotive manufacturing; advanced manufacturing and manufacturing components (e.g., semiconductors, robotics); telecommunications; financial technology; entertainment; and media.”
It’s a tragedy that loans intended to help save American businesses ultimately aided communist China in advancing its goal of replacing America as the most powerful country. But to be fair, these hundreds of millions of dollars weren’t stolen—the money was freely handed over due to the absence of proper protections.
First, the Small Business Administration should work with outside researchers and experts, such as Horizon Advisory and RWR Advisory Group, to put together a list of known China-affiliated companies and ensure these loans are repaid in full.
Second, the Small Business Administration and Treasury Department should put more protections in place to ensure that loans are not awarded in the future to entities affiliated with American adversaries.
American businesses shouldn’t be second fiddle. It’s the responsibility of the U.S. government to ensure the security of Americans in times of crisis, not enable our cleverly opportunistic adversaries to profit.
The U.S. government must act now to develop the systems that will ensure the American taxpayers aren’t subsidizing the very dictatorship which wants to defeat them.
