The Patriot Post® · Chinese Aggression Acceleration
It’s always wise to keep an eye on China. Our rival on the other side of the globe is not shy about flagrantly toying with international stability. Not surprisingly, during President Joe Biden’s tenure, China has been especially bold.
Perhaps the biggest instance of flagrant aggression (besides the ChiCom spy balloon) has been the increased occasions of attempted infiltration into sensitive U.S. sites. Chinese nationals, posing sometimes as tourists, have “gate crashed” — as the FBI refers to it — different U.S. military bases or other sensitive sites without authorization over 100 times in the past few years.
These Chinese nationals are found in very suspicious locations (not tourist ones), often remote and often trespassing. When stopped, these “tourists” have scripted answers and always claim that they are lost. Some of these spies have even criminally blown through different checkpoints in order to infiltrate deeper into sites.
Investigative sources such as the FBI know it is espionage because they have found that these so-called tourists have sent information gleaned from their “gate crashing” directly back to China. This form of espionage is intended to test the responses of the personnel at these sensitive locations, but it’s also used as a part of the Chinese campaign of intimidation and harmful propaganda that they have been inflicting on the American people.
The FBI has said about these incidents, “The Chinese government is engaged in a broad, diverse campaign of theft and malign influence without regard to laws or international norms that the FBI will not tolerate.” The malign influence that the FBI refers to includes the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) paying for influence in American public schools, Confucius Institutes on college campuses, and its unprecedented psychological manipulation and warfare on American teens through the social media spyware known as TikTok.
As for the most recent reports, the Chinese have addressed this obvious attempt at espionage as an “ill-intentioned fabrication” on the part of the U.S. government.
Military espionage is not the only form of Chinese aggression that is plaguing the United States. China is also messing with business regulations in order to get international businesses to comply with its voracious intelligence gathering, mainly via counterespionage laws that could force companies to give up U.S. trade secrets. The consequences for a company not complying include being blacklisted in China as an “espionage company” and having its employees be arrested and jailed.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, the latest of President Biden’s staff to visit China, took what she insists is a firmer stance with the Chinese. She told her counterparts that because of these measures, U.S. businesses are going to do business elsewhere if regulations of this type aren’t lifted. On CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” Raimondo recounted her conversation with the Chinese: “I was very clear with China that … patience is wearing thin among American business. They need and deserve a predictable environment and a level playing field. And hopefully China will heed that message so we can have a stable [and] growing commercial relationship.”
Verbal assurances from the Chinese were the result of strong condemnation from the commerce secretary. In return for not spying on U.S. companies, the Chinese want tariffs lifted and access to semiconductors, which are likely not going to happen.
The U.S. isn’t the only international body that the Chinese are aggravating. In an extremely ominous move, the CCP has released a new “standard map” of China. This map has incensed almost all of China’s neighbors, as it effectively claims territory that China doesn’t actually have. The map declares that territory in India’s Himalayas called the Arunachal Pradesh belongs to China. The map also claims an even greater territory in the South China Sea, which is a “territorial grab the size of which the world has rarely seen before,” according to The Spectator. “The area is rich in natural resources and encompasses vital shipping lanes — an estimated $3 trillion of international trade transits the area each year. It is also claimed in part by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, which all reacted angrily to the latest map.”
China releases an updated map every year, but this one is particularly egregious. Similar maps in the past have been ruled illegal by the international community, but China’s claims keep getting more audacious.
The ChiComs may feel that they have nothing to lose. Washington isn’t standing up to Beijing. Plus, China’s economy is suffering. There is nothing like China provoking the war machine in the East to stimulate its flagging economy.