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It is easy to forget how long the China Doves and the China Lobby—wait, I repeat myself—held absolute control of power and influence over the full spectrum of the American political nomenklatura.

Bush-41 and Bush-43 were both supporters of a rising China. The Clinton Administration was LITERALLY the Coffee Klatch Era. Obama “welcomed China’s rise” … and everyone this century has been too distracted to slow the creeping influence and control of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from the South China Sea to the Southwest Pacific.

Only in the last decade has there been a real shift where the China Doves have lost the dominant position in most of the national security nomenklatura, but not totally.

You can see it in the strangest places, and off-frequency messages from people, media figures, various institutions—and of course the usual leftists cadres—a strange mix of apologia for the PRC and in some cases, outright support.

I’m not saying people are compromised, but it looks that way now and then.

The PRC still has deep penetration in Congress, our economy, and academia. In the West, the U.S.A. has, more than others, woken up to the threat…but we are in the lead. The stragglers are the issue. Amongst many of our allies and friends, the PRC still has its full-spectrum campaign underway. In some places like Canada, it is even encouraged.

Chinese economic and financial incentives are just too seductive and most Western political systems are even more immune to accountability than ours…and unquestionably are more opaque. Just like many of the self-loathing Left during the Cold War were more than happy to make excuses for and cuddle up to the Soviet Union, we are seeing that pattern again with the West’s self-loathing Left and the PRC.

As discouraging as this can be to watch from a distance, you can see a pushback starting to grow. Slowly, mostly because of a combination of cocksure Wolf Warrior Diplomacy and simple ham-fisted bungling, the PRC’s actions have become simply too obvious for fair-minded patriots to ignore.

As we saw in the U.S. starting over a decade ago, the strongest voices are starting to be heard from the wilderness about what the PRC is up to.

Over in the United Kingdom, Ian Duncan Smith outlines their challenge well.

The revelations in The Telegraph that China is accused of secretly funding pro-Palestine demonstrations in Britain – channelling funds to far-Left activist groups to sow chaos on our streets – should send a chill down the spine of every minister in Whitehall.

Yet none of this is new. No one in the security establishment, or those of us in politics who have been warning about it, will be remotely astonished.

For far too long, Western governments were lulled into a dangerous stupor by the siren song of the so-called “Golden Era” of relations with China. This Government hasn’t learnt either, thawing relations with Beijing in a desperate and naïve hope for growth.

Beijing’s dangling of the money bag—not unlike the success the Russians have had with Germany—is hard for unserious and weak-of-character people in serious jobs to ignore.

Too many policymakers convinced themselves that commercial integration would inevitably lead to political convergence. Instead, Beijing saw in our good faith an opportunity to deepen their infiltration of our institutions, manipulate our public square, and weaponise our open society against us. For totalitarian regimes, our freedoms are an existential challenge to their authority and a weakness to exploit.

The potential secret funding of pro-Palestine demonstrations reflects a deliberate, methodical execution of a military doctrine that the Chinese state published a quarter of a century ago.

I know the balance of the readers of CDR Salamander are familiar with this, but for those who are not, when you get done here, read up.

In 1999, two senior officers in the People’s Liberation Army, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, authored a seminal text titled Unrestricted Warfare. Their thesis was simple yet radical: classical military conflict was no longer the primary means to defeat an adversary. Instead, warfare would be expanded across every conceivable domain of human activity – including political subversion and the exploitation of social division.

As Liang and Xiangsui made crystal clear, modern conflict requires “using all means, including armed force or non-armed force, military and non-military, and lethal and non-lethal means to compel the enemy to accept one’s interests”. Qiao later summarised the core tenet of this total-war philosophy even more bluntly: “The first rule of unrestricted warfare is that there are no rules, with nothing forbidden.” Just look at the scale of China’s global cyber-attacks on Western nations.

This doctrine accounts for exactly the kind of activity uncovered in these covert funding networks. By covertly backing fringe political groups, encouraging protests outside military sites like RAF bases, and amplifying divisive narratives that Western leaders are “bought”, Beijing aims to weaken our resolve and fracture our domestic peace.

The PRC is doing this throughout the West and any other nation where they want access and influence.

It is a full-spectrum attack—right out there in the open.

Also, just look at how China has become the central power in the rise of the totalitarian states. Russia, for example, couldn’t have continued the war in Ukraine without Beijing’s support. It is believed the Chinese have also supported Iran’s IRGC, particularly in its supply of drones for Russia. And don’t forget China’s huge support for the brutal regime in Myanmar.

On the civilian front, China is clearly attempting to undermine our markets. Heavily subsidised Chinese electric vehicles are pouring onto British roads. These are not merely cars; they are high-tech data hubs equipped with advanced sensors, capable of gathering vast troves of mapping data – and could potentially contain “kill switches” that could paralyse transport networks at the push of a button during a diplomatic crisis. Sadly, as the rest of Nato wakes up to the threat, Britain heads in a different direction – to “Project Kowtow”.

Give the article a full read.

Once you are done with that, are you up to speed on the PRC’s new embassy in London?

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