In 1QFY2026, there cannot be anyone in Europe or North America—much less anyone in a NATO nation—who still thinks that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is a good-faith business partner unless they are compromised or thick as a brick.

Let’s speak as adults.

Yes, there is a large percentage of mercantilists on both sides of the Atlantic who will happily sell the rope used to hang them. There are equally significant numbers of people who refuse to accept any of the lessons of history and are as happy to sell off their national industrial capital to the PRC and buy all their hydrocarbons from Russia. They neither care nor are curious to know why others do care. All they are interested in is collecting their quarterly dividends and being invited to all the fun meetings. Yes, there is a lot of money floating around people are willing to grasp to pay-and-play.

No, you don’t hold those people in enough contempt, but yes, you have to accept that they exist and, frankly, still control most of the levers of power.

NATO is notorious for arguing over how many angels can stand on the head of a pin, why everyone deserves a contribution trophy, and why every cardinal heading around Brussels is a flank. This is an opportunity for the alliance to do something serious and impactful.

As an alliance, we need to drive a stake in the ground and say, “No more.” Enough ground has already been lost by the worst leaders for the worst reasons. No reason to give up more ground.

If you don’t get angry reading James S. Robbins’s article over at Real Clear Defense, Beijing’s Trojan Yacht, please consult your doctor.

If you don’t understand the concern raised by the following, please leave the national security space and invest your time in something like funny dog videos.

BEHOLD!

Western military technology has run not only through espionage but also through economic leverage. China buys companies of strategic importance, learn what they know, and move the knowledge home. This approach worked in semiconductors, telecommunications and critical minerals. It is now being applied to one of the West’s most sophisticated builders of high-performance naval craft.

Ferretti Group, the Italian builder of luxury yachts, is also a defense contractor. Since 2016 it has supplied patrol and fast-attack craft to the Italian Navy, Coast Guard and Carabinieri, and Rome designates it a strategic asset. Its “dual-use” technology can be used for both military and non-military purposes. The hull that lets a Pershing sports yacht exceed 45 knots, the composites that trim radar signatures, the propulsion that quiets the acoustic profile and the integration of sensors and weapons stations are engineered the same for both civilian customers and maritime security services.

…

Ferretti's controlling shareholder is Weichai, a Chinese state-owned conglomerate founded after World War II to manufacture arms for Mao’s People's Liberation Army. Today, Weichai builds diesel engines that power everything from trucks to mobile rocket launchers for the Chinese military. One customer, Norinco, answers to the Chinese Communist Party's state-asset system.

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Weichai owns 39.5 percent of Ferretti but was able to capture eight of nine board seats at the company’s May board meeting. The vote passed with the support of a bloc of major Chinese shareholders, each holding under the 3 percent threshold that would have triggered additional disclosures. The second-largest shareholder is now in a Bologna court arguing that Weichai never made the national security filing Italian law requires. Anyone who has observed how Beijing operates in Western markets will recognize that this is all part of a pattern.

Weichai’s longtime chairman said in 2023 that a priority was to transfer Ferretti’s production technology to a marine hub in Qingdao, already home to a large Chinese naval base.

Read the whole thing. It only gets worse.

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