The Chinese communists who run the world’s most populous and increasingly powerful country don’t have inhibitions or scruples when it comes to spying or theft of intellectual property. They propagandize all over the world, gladly using every opportunity from hosting the Olympics to Confucius Institutes on American college campuses. Oh, and they are responsible for the coronavirus and the world’s nearly six million dead. It is a huge problem that the 2020 election left America with a president who kowtows rather than stands up to the ChiComs.

It all started with, of all things, the etymology of the word “kowtow.” According to Merriam-Webster, it “derives from Chinese koutou, formed by combining the verb kou (‘to knock’) with the noun tou (‘head’).” It described “the act of kneeling and touching one’s head to the ground as a salute or act of worship to a revered authority” — in China, the emperor.

Joe Biden isn’t literally kowtowing to Xi Jinping, but we’ve called him ChiCom Joe thanks to his deferential treatment of Xi’s regime. The latest episode of this comes in the form of Biden’s Justice Department shuttering a program aimed at countering ChiCom espionage. And a successful one to boot, with more than 50 examples of prosecuting espionage, conspiracy, and grant fraud.

“The Justice Department successfully prosecuted a number of academics who failed to register grants from China,” writes journalist Tom Rogan. “Beijing has used grants and undeclared intelligence officers and agents to gain influence over and access to proprietary U.S. research.”

The Social Justice Department, however, is more concerned with racism than national security.

“By grouping cases under the China Initiative rubric,” explained Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen, “we helped give rise to a harmful perception that the department applies a lower standard to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct related to that country or that we in some way view people with racial, ethnic, or familial ties to China differently.”

“We have heard concerns from the civil rights community that the ‘China Initiative’ fueled a narrative of intolerance and bias,” Olsen added, pointing to “the rise in anti-Asian hate crime and hate incidents.”

As for basic demographics, China is a nation of 1.4 billion people, and 91% of them are Han Chinese. That racial homogeneity doesn’t make other nations “racist” for investigating or countering Chinese activities, but this administration does nothing so well as counting by race.

“DOJ will no longer use the framework of the China Initiative to organize or to describe our efforts to counter threats by the PRC government,” Olsen said. “We are ending the China Initiative,” though he insisted it will be replaced with a more “comprehensive” and “broader approach.”

According to Politico: “Olsen said he met with a variety of Asian American groups who have complained about the program. He said he agreed with them that the effort was in some ways harming U.S. national security by discouraging skilled experts of Chinese origin from pursuing their work in the U.S.”

It’s certainly possible that America is missing out on valuable talent from Chinese immigrants who would otherwise pose no risk. But the whole problem with Chinese involvement in American technology firms and industry is that intellectual property theft is a major driver of Chinese economic expansion. Just because it’s difficult or inconvenient to build a DOJ case against some activity doesn’t make that activity acceptable or somehow innocuous when it comes to American interests.

John Durham’s probe of Hillary Clinton’s Russia hoax may not yield any big arrests for violations of the law. That doesn’t mean it’s not the biggest political scandal in U.S. history.

Countering Chinese espionage is a matter of American national security. Biden’s color-obsessed social justice warriors need to quit with all the “unity” and remember that.