עיתונאי NTD סטיב לאנס שוחח עם המומחה לענייני סין, גורדון צ'אנג, עמית בכיר במכון "גייטסטון" ומחבר הספר: "תוכנית אדומה: הפרויקט של סין להשמדת אמריקה".
צ'אנג אומר בין היתר: "המפלגה הקומוניסטית אינה מאמינה שהיא יכולה להתקיים יחד עם ארה"ב. היא רואה בנו איום קיומי. היא רואה בנו איום כזה לא בגלל משהו שאנו אומרים או עושים, אלא בגלל מי שאנחנו. בבייג'ינג קיים משטר חסר ביטחון, שחושש מההשראה שמעוררים הערכים ושיטת הממשל האמריקנים על העם הסיני. לכן, לעולם לא יהיו לנו יחסים ידידותיים עם בייג'ינג כל עוד המפלגה הקומוניסטית שולטת במדינה".
צ'אנג מתייחס גם לביקורו האחרון של שי ג'ין-פינג בארה"ב ואומר: "אני חושב שמה שעשינו בסופו של דבר היה למעשה לחזק את מעמדו [של שי]. דבר נוסף שהצעד הביא היה לעכב את ארה"ב מלנקוט צעדים נגד כל הדברים המסוכנים והפרובוקטיביים שסין מבצעת. כל עוד אנחנו משוחחים, איננו מעמידים אותה בפני השלכות, אנחנו משחקים את המשחק הזה עם סין כבר זמן רב מאוד. כעת זה תלוי בנו להבין מה הם עושים ולנקוט בפועל את הצעדים הנדרשים".
"הדבר החשוב ביותר שעלינו לעשות הוא להחזיר את ייצור התרופות לארה"ב, משום שיש כמעט 700 תרופות שלסין יש עליהן מונופול של 100%, היא יכולה למנוע את אספקתן – דבר שהיא איימה לעשות במארס 2020, בעיצומה של מגפת הקורונה. אנחנו צריכים להחזיר את עיבוד המתכות הנדירות לארה"ב או לבצע אותו יחד עם בעלות הברית. עלינו להבטיח שסין לא תוכל להשתמש במונופול הכמעט מוחלט שלה בתחום זה כדי להשפיע על תוצאות פוליטיות בארצנו, כפי שסין ללא ספק עשתה במהלך הכהונה השנייה של ממשל טראמפ. אנחנו צריכים להוציא מהמדינה שלנו את הרשתות של סין, את הפעילים האלה, את החיילים שלהם. יש כל כך הרבה דברים שעלינו לעשות, משום שסין חדרה למדינה שלנו בכל הרמות, מלמעלה ועד למטה", אומר צ'אנג.
Joining us now to assess, Gordon Chang, senior fellow for the Gatestone Institute and author
of Plan Red, China's Project to Destroy America.
Gordon, it's great to have you back with us.
So the U.S. has plenty of tools to push back on China, a government accused, of course,
of widespread human rights abuses using united front work tactics against America.
For Americans at home, what should they understand about engaging with the CCP and what is your
assessment of the Trump-Xi talks in the state of U.S.-China relations as it stands now?
Well, thanks, Steve.
Most fundamentally, the Communist Party does not believe it can coexist with the United
States.
It views us as an existential threat, and it views us that way not because of anything
that we say or do, but because of who we are.
You have an insecure regime in Beijing, is worried about the inspirational impact of
America's values and form of governance on the Chinese people.
So we will never have amicable relations with Beijing as long as the Communist Party rules
the country.
Now, Xi Jinping came into Washington.
I don't think he came here to deal.
I think he wanted the images of President Trump actually just sort of honoring him so
they could be beamed back to China.
He's got a really unstable situation, I believe, in the Communist Party, all the purges.
So I think what we did end up is really bolstering him.
The other thing that he did also was to try to postpone the United States from actually
taking action on all the dangerous and provocative things that China's doing.
While we talk, we do not impose costs, and we've been sort of playing this game for a
very long time with China, and it's up to us now to understand what they're doing and
to actually impose those measures.
Now, communism, as we know, is a foreign export, not inherently Chinese.
Capitalism, which China tries to project, obviously isn't communism.
It seems like a bit of an identity crisis happening for the Chinese regime internally.
Everyday Chinese citizens, Gordon, don't share in the wealth that's ultimately enjoyed by
the party leaders and face political persecution.
What makes communist China fundamentally different than a country like ours here in America?
People in China don't have a political say, and they run one of the most coercive regimes
anywhere, and we're seeing it become more coercive.
So for instance, these exit bans, which were first imposed on tech titans, now they're
being imposed on their families and the families of researchers and technicians.
This is really something that harks back to East Berlin, and it shows the regime, I think,
is fragile, and the regime knows how fragile it is.
So it's, you know, as Havel told us, communism goes against life, and that's the fundamental
difference between their system and ours.
Speaking of that fragility, Xi Jinping has now purged both major PLA factions, leaving
the Central Military Commission with just himself and one general.
What do these purges tell you about the current power dynamic inside of the Communist Party?
Well, a lot of people will say, oh, you know, this shows that Xi Jinping is in complete
control of the military because he can fire officers.
But he's been firing officers for more than a decade now.
So if he were in complete control of the military, he wouldn't need to do that.
And it indicates that the military is really beyond his control.
And as you point out, the Communist Party Central Military Commission now has only two
officers out of seven.
The rest have been cashiered.
And it really means that you've got a Central Military Commission that has no operational
personnel.
You've got Xi Jinping himself and a political commissar.
And basically, Xi Jinping has decimated his own military.
It can do a lot of small stuff like these provocative exercises in the South China Sea
and elsewhere, but I don't think it can do the big stuff like invade the main island
of Taiwan.
Now, Russia has faced crushing sanctions and in the past, economic and diplomatic pressure
helped bring down the Soviet Union and ended apartheid in South Africa.
Has Beijing faced a different approach and what would further decoupling look like in
your view?
We have not imposed the sanctions on China that we should.
We should be, for instance, just enforcing our own law.
The Tariff Act of 1930, for instance, prohibits the importation of goods made with forced
or slave labor into our country.
We don't enforce that to a very great extent.
Also, we have Chinese banks laundering money for Iran, for drug dealers, for some really
bad elements around the world.
And those are laundered through the New York banking system because every dollar transaction
in the world, except those done in paper currency, runs through New York.
But we're letting the Chinese banks continue to launder money.
I mean, do we have laws or not?
Because it looks like they do not apply to China.
And this is a shame on us for not enforcing our own laws.
Gordon, you pointed out that the CCP wages war on America by many means, from birth tourism
to fentanyl trafficking.
For viewers who may not be familiar, what are the United Front tactics and how do they
ultimately cause harm to Americans?
The United Front work department is the part of the Communist Party that subverts foreign
governments.
So, for instance, it will illicitly transfer money through accounts around the world into
the United States to foment division among us, to create political majorities that support
the Communist Party.
So, for instance, data centers.
Now, Americans have a lot of legitimate reasons for complaining about a data center in their
home.
But these protests are not necessarily organic, because a lot of them are fueled by Communist
Party money.
Also, on August 27, the X platform talked about how a Chinese bot farm was actually
sending out identical messages opposing data centers.
So this is the United Front work department.
We see this with these protests that were in Washington last week, where you had United
Front officials actually organizing Chinese nationals and ethnic Chinese to assault protesters
who were exercising their First Amendment rights.
This is outrageous.
They've been doing this for decades on our own soil, Steve.
And we don't stop it.
This is, again, something that is a failure on the part of the American political system
to defend the American homeland.
You're absolutely right, Gordon.
And lastly, the administration is working to make U.S. supply chains less dependent
on China.
Today, the president announcing the largest steel plant to be built in U.S. history in
Iowa.
What more can the United States do to hold the CCP accountable?
And what's ultimately at stake for American jobs and families?
The most important thing we need to do is to onshore pharmaceuticals, because there
are almost 700 pharmaceuticals over which China has 100% monopoly.
And they can withhold them, something that they threatened to do in March of 2020 during
the middle of the coronavirus epidemic.
We need to get rare earth processing back into the United States or with our friends.
We've got to make sure that China can't use its near monopoly on that to affect political
outcomes in our country, which China has obviously done in the second Trump administration.
We need to get China's networks out of our country, these operatives, their soldiers.
There's just so many things, Steve, because China has infiltrated our country from the
top to the bottom.
The agenda for things for us to do is really, really long.