CDR Salamander - Keeping an Eye on the Long Game: Part CIV

It’s been almost nine months since the last Long Game post. We’re overdue.

For a while I thought I might stop the Long Game series I started in 2004, after all, the Long is Now…but I was mistaken.

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is still playing a long game…and we—and that includes me—just keep getting distracted.

I had the following exchange with Brent Sadler at about the 52-minute mark toward the end of last Sunday’s Midrats Podcast that reminded me that, even in 2026, we’re still thinking like it’s 1996.

Sal: It seem like it just happened a little while ago when they said, “Hey, there are there are PRC police stations right here in New York City.” It’s fairly high profile. It’s dropped into the background again. But there was also news that broke a couple weeks ago, and this is old news, but people are getting shocked over it. Smithfield Foods (is) owned by China. And so much of Chinese business is involved in the U.S. in real estate, agriculture, infrastructure. And it’s not benign. And it’s something that American companies cannot do in China themselves. And it is very much related and impacting national security. When we we saw this winter, the fact that CCP aligned individuals owned property right on the approach to the one airfield we have our B2s on.

… out here in the provinces, it seems like the energy of having a mature conversation about what the the PRC is doing here inside of our lifelines…seems to have faded into the background a bit.

Brent: No, you’re right about that. The China Select Committee, Mike Gallagher, so very much engaged with him and at the time Elaine Luria on getting two commissions, or committee special. This one has survived and there’s a sentiment and s up on the hill that this committee will probably be off ramped, and I think that’s a significant mistake. And so I’m working to continue to elevate and as long as they keep doing good work that’s meaningful and is and and is to the point and backed up by facts, the better.

So the other thing is going after like paid protesters that tie back to back to the CCP,. For example, is one thing that you’re starting to see a lot of traction. But if you didn’t have the select committee, a lot of that, a lot of unfair stock listing, unfair trade practices, the threat from the Chinese on elite capture. You know, we had a mayor in California that was arrested as an agent of China.

So it’s very real. The United Front Department is specifically the CCP’s tool for recruiting Americans to their cause. And with the rise of socialism, unfortunately, this is even more important. And so the committee, there’s there is a concern that it will be off-ramped. Ro Khana is not showing much desire to keep it going. The Republican chair for it, Moolenaar does, but he hasn’t been as as visible.

Not by lack of effort, just hasn’t been as visible. I think partly that’s because the issues in Iran. but the work that they do is critical. I think the committee needs to continue. Certainly, there’s much work left to be done, to say the least.

Our inability to maintain resolve—and a similar lack of clear-eyed focus by our allies—just calls into question the seriousness of our leaders.

This isn’t the Coffee Klatch era, and yet…we have this going on in the UK, as reported in the Daily Telegraph.

Royal Navy spy drones used by Britain’s elite special forces secretly sent data to China, The Telegraph can reveal.

The cameras on the K3 Scout surveillance drones had components made in China which were secretly transmitting information to a device in the country.

The Royal Marines have been using the £12m fleet since March and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was forced to remove all internet connectivity from the cameras after discovering the breach

Again, this is 2026. Am I the only one who read the Govini Report? It’s just embarrassing, amateurish, and unprofessional at this point.

Nothing in any NATO nation’s military should have electronics made in the PRC. Any reliance on raw materials from the PRC should already be on the offramp.

There can be no excuse…but the unseriousness gets worse.

The balance of readers here I assume have held a security clearance of some kind. In the course of a career, you get A LOT of training on, in essence, counter-intelligence hygiene, on how to spot your own vulnerabilities and to see when you are the target of an intelligence operation of one kind of another. The higher up you go, and the more ‘entertaining’ your job is/was, the more other nations’ intelligence agencies want to get in your head, or the more terrorists want to kill/kidnap/exploit you.

It is more than, “If you are a 4 and she is a 10, you’re an asset”

We all carry stuff in our heads that we can’t get rid of. The longer you’ve been in, the more “interesting” your jobs have been, the more stuff you keep locked in a series of boxes in your head that you are supposed to take to the grave with you…or it some cases, just having a few of those lockboxes in your nogg’n helps your way to the grave.

Our most senior officers especially have things in their nogg’n that don’t need to leak out.

I guess no one is taught about Captain John Philip Cromwell, USN anymore.

The below—the willful exposure of our gullible retired senior leadership to what is laughably clear to be a PRC intel operation—should be a national scandal. The amount of hours PRC intelligence operatives have been granted to conduct varsity-level elicitation is just gobsmacking. All of these people should know better.

To give credit where credit is due, when I first saw this post by Natalie Winters, I squinted a bit and wasn’t really that sure about it. But…I’ve actually had the pleasure of being introduced to Natalie by our mutual friend Tom Sauer and we made small talk for a couple of minutes before she headed off to do more important things. She immediately struck me as having a sharp intellect…so I went back and read the whole thread.

She pulled no punches and came right off the top rope:

Top American generals formed a secret backchannel with a CCP military intelligence front that instructed them:

“We wish you would advocate positions” favorable to China.

Some ended up on China’s payroll.

Read the whole thread.

I feel bad that it took Natalie to bring this above the background noise to the point that Secretary Hegseth now has it in his scan as of last week.

It is not new news…it is just news that was ignored. When you see some of the names involved, it makes sense.

Check this out from Spring 2020’s Marine Corps University Press’s Journal of Advance Military Studies article by Professor Kerry K. Gershaneck titled, Political Warfare The People’s Republic of China’s Strategy “to Win without Fighting”

Of particular concern to the U.S. military is the PRC’s highly successful employment of political warfare operations to co-opt retired senior U.S. military officers to lobby on behalf of PRC objectives and to undermine U.S. national security objectives.⁴⁴ The PLA has successfully co-opted retired U.S. military flag and general officers through organizations such as the Chinese Association for International Friendly Contact (CAIFC) and other programs such as the Sanya Initiative.⁴⁵

Established in December 1984 as a political warfare platform, CAIFC’s “main function is establishing and maintaining rapport with senior foreign defense and security community elites, including retired senior military officers and legislators.”⁴⁶ CAIFC routinely sponsors retired U.S. officers for free visits to the PRC for what amounts to political indoctrination sessions. According to Mark Stokes and Russell Hsiao, “CAIFC facilitates influence operations through PRC foreign affairs, state security, united front, propaganda systems, and military systems.”⁴⁷ To entice American and other foreign retired military officers, “CAIFC serves as a window to China’s broader business community.” In some cases, foreign retired officers have been required to “agree to publish editorials supporting China [sic] position and criticize U.S. regional policy in exchange for business development support in China.”⁴⁸

The Sanya Initiative began in February 2008 as a PRC initiative to influence senior retired U.S. flag and general officers to support PRC security interests. At the first meeting at Sanya Resort on the PRC’s Hainan Island, senior PRC political warfare and intelligence officers led the PLA side, and U.S. participants were led by retired Admiral (and former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) William A. Owens. According to a Congressional Research Service report on the Sanya Initiative, “The PLA side asked the U.S. participants to help with PRC objections to U.S. policies and laws: namely the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), Pentagon’s report to Congress on PRC Military Power, and legal restrictions on military contacts in the [National Defense Authorization Act] NDAA for FY2000.”⁴⁹ Meetings were subsequently held during 2009, in Honolulu, Hawaii; Washington, DC; and New York City. As a result, Owens (who had business interests in China as a managing director of AEA Investors in Hong Kong) published an opinion piece opposing the Taiwan Relations Act as harmful to the relationship with a rising great power—China—that has increasing wealth and influence in the world.⁵⁰ Owens and certain other U.S. officers continued to meet with senior CCP officials and to support PRC security objectives in discussions with members of Congress and DOD officials.⁵¹

That point about Owens is not made up. Heck, he’s proud of it. Put on your Red Hat, remember all your counterintelligence briefings, and give his Wikipedia page a read.

Retired four-stars make an ungodly amount of money in retirement pay alone…but that is not enough for some.

Let’s go back to Natalie’s thread. She’s naming names. I’m so disgusted that I’m more than happy to list them here. Why have Owens get all the love? I’m not even going to list what their final jobs were in the military. You all know the names.

• Peter Pace

• Bill Owens

• John Abizaid

• George Casey

• Ray Odierno

• Jonathan Greenert

• Ronald Fogleman

• Norton Schwartz

• Dennis Reimer

• Joseph Prueher

• Timothy Keating

• John Keane

• Walter Sharp

• Charles Jacoby

• Charles Wilhelm

• Robert Van Antwerp

• Stephen Lanza

• Karl Eikenberry

…and of course, we all know who the guy in the middle is.

Read Natalie’s longer post on this decade+ intel operation.

Of course, there is a cameo by Hillary Clinton, some walkabouts of the U.S. Naval Academy…and many of the usual suspects.

What do you do with this?

In 2009, Owens became a consultant to Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications company that was already facing scrutiny in Washington over national security concerns. He later founded Amerilink Telecom Corp., a Virginia-based company created to market Huawei equipment in the United States. According to the Financial Times, Huawei was Amerilink’s first customer, and Owens acknowledged he began consulting for the company before launching the venture.

Amerilink was not merely a reseller.

A U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission report found that the company worked as both a distributor and consultant for Huawei, helping the company pursue business in the United States. During Huawei’s effort to win part of Sprint Nextel’s network contract, Amerilink proposed serving as an intermediary that would address Washington’s security concerns by independently testing Huawei equipment and overseeing its deployment.

…

Owens continued publicly defending Huawei after the Sprint effort failed.

Speaking at a 2014 China conference, Owens said:

“I object to the way Huawei was treated in the United States because it’s unfair.”

He argued that American policy toward Huawei had been driven by politics rather than evidence.

His public advocacy extended beyond Huawei.

In November 2009, Owens authored an essay titled “America Must Start Treating China as a Friend.” In it, he argued that the United States should rethink its approach toward Beijing and questioned continued American arms sales to Taiwan, writing that Washington should reconsider policies that Chinese leaders viewed as hostile.

At the same time, Owens maintained a significant business presence in Asia.

He served as chairman and senior partner of AEA Investors Asia, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm, and later led Red Bison Advisory Group, whose public materials described advising companies and developing partnerships involving enterprises in China.

He’s like something out of a novel or spy movie…and not one of the good guys. As a cherry on top, he’s associated with all sorts of the usual suspects on the left like Issue One. I mean, really people. It is all just too spot on.

I’m not the only one seeing this, am I?

CUSEF’s later materials show the operation continued after the original Sanya branding faded.

In its 2023 and 2024 reporting, the foundation described a “U.S.-China Military-to-Military Dialogue” involving retired American four-star generals and admirals meeting Chinese counterparts in an annual, closed-door setting.

Fun CUSEF detail. Google “Sanya Initiative”. This is one of the returns.

If you try to click it, you get this.

Huh.

Somehow, Stimson got involved around 2020 as well? Are they still?

…and yes, I understand the good-faith idea around these exchanges…but it is a bad idea, a wrong idea, and an idea—if you understand how the PRC intelligence services work—an idea that only makes sense to useful idiots, incurious people wanting to feel important again, or the compromised.

The PRC is dead serious about kicking the U.S. out of its position in the world.

We act like we don’t know—or care—that they do. Having our own retired GOFO willingly allowing themselves to be open to compromise is, again, a national scandal.

A.Maze.Ing.

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