OPINION:
China’s shadowy hostility toward the United States is hard to miss. Yet President Biden behaves as if the Asian giant is little more than an agile competitor in a geopolitical version of TV’s “American Ninja Warrior.”
Unless he acquires a more clear-eyed grasp of Beijing’s intentions, the United States could wind up falling behind.
Recent events capture the gravity of the Chinese Communist Party’s designs. Last Thursday, the Department of Justice announced that two active-duty U.S. sailors have been arrested in California and charged with sending sensitive information about U.S. warships and operations to intelligence officers in China.
Prosecutors say the pair received thousands of dollars after providing China with sensitive material, including photos, videos of ships and weapons systems. One sailor who was born in China became a U.S. citizen just last year, casting doubt on the integrity of so fresh an allegiance to the Stars and Stripes.
The arrests come on the heels of a recent New York Times report stating “a ticking time bomb” — in the form of Chinese malware — has infected networks controlling utilities at U.S. military bases at home and abroad.
As President Xi Jinping assembles China’s military might for a possible invasion of Taiwan, U.S. intelligence experts fear that Beijing could disrupt U.S. military power, water and communications, thus crippling any response to a move by mainland China against its neighbor.
Disturbed by the report, 11 House Republicans, led by Rep. Mark Alford of Missouri, have written to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and National Security Agency Director of Cybersecurity Rob Joyce, pressing for an accounting of the alleged security lapse: “Leaving CCP aggression unchecked only invites expanded CCP bellicose behaviors.”
Despite the threat, Mr. Biden has reportedly delayed the imposition of new economic sanctions on China and is mulling plans to lift tariffs that then-President Donald Trump ordered in 2018-19. Mr. Xi’s administration has made sanctions relief a condition of resuming military communications with the U.S.
In addition, lawmakers have raised red flags over China’s gobbling up thousands of acres of farmland in the vicinity of U.S. military bases. Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington responded by introducing a bill that would ban the purchase of U.S. agricultural land “by foreign nationals associated with the Government of the People’s Republic of China.”
Growing U.S. indignation over China’s aggression mustn’t be construed as “Sinophobia”: It is Asian Americans themselves who harbor the greatest contempt for the Asian giant, according to a survey conducted in July by the Pew Research Center.
Among naturalized U.S. citizens who emigrated from seven Asian nations other than China, only 14% expressed a positive view toward China.
By contrast, Asian American attitudes toward other Asian nations range from Japan’s 67% favorable rating to India’s 23%. Tellingly, even most Chinese Americans turn thumbs-down on their ancestral homeland, with only 41% viewing it positively.
They, most of all, harbor firsthand knowledge of their homeland’s malevolence.
If Mr. Biden remains haplessly inattentive to China’s shadowy mischief, the United States is destined to finish as an also-ran in the premier geopolitical contest.
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