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This might sound like a plot for a thriller — and I am the author of “The Year of the Dragon”— but the director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, recently said, at Vanderbilt University’s “Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats,” that Chinese-government-linked hackers have “burrowed into critical U.S. infrastructure” and are waiting for “just the right moment to deal a devastating blow” to America.
Could such a moment come if China attacks Taiwan? Just imagine the mayhem in the U.S. if the national power grid was taken down for days.
The U.S., along with Taiwan, run war games scenarios on worries like these annually. But why is the director of the FBI worrying about them publicly?
Chinese President Xi Jinping reviews the honor guard during a welcome ceremony at The Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Nov. 22, 2023. (Florence Lo – Pool/Getty Images)
Also, why in the same political moment did U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinkenpublish talking points saying there are now “290,000 Chinese students in the United States” but just 900 American students in China?
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In the release, Blinken did not mention the massive rise in Chinese nationals entering through the porous southern border of the U.S. — that fact just isn’t something the Biden administration finds politically convenient enough to talk about.
But Blinken did say the Biden administration is “very clear-eyed about the challenges posed by the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and about our competing visions for the future,” before talking about how China issupplying Russia with military parts that are “powering Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meet at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Feb. 16. (Wolfgang Rattay/Pool Photo via AP)
He also mentioned Chinese involvement in selling chemicals to Mexican cartels that are sending massive amounts of the fentanyl into the U.S. — chemicals that are killing more Americans every year than died in the entire Vietnam War — though he didn’t take a stance tough enough to make theChinese flinch on this critical topic.
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So then, why are Biden administration officials suddenly sounding so tough on China?
Biden recently signed legislation to force the sale of Chinese-owned TikTok and legislation to fund Taiwan’s defense. In response, Chinese officials are nowthreatening to take”resolute and forceful steps” against the U.S. and Taiwan.
VideoSaber-rattling can be an important part of diplomacy, but typically, rhetoric like this would be said through diplomatic channels while solutions are floated publicly.
As that is not happening here, this appears to be all about U.S. domestic politics.
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To put this in perspective, it is important to remember that Biden accused former President Donald Trump of xenophobia when he called COVID the “China virus.” Later, the Biden administration worked with American social-media companies to censor political speech about China’s involvement in the virus.
VideoEven when Trump used tariffs to try to force China to play fair, Biden and much of the Left mocked and attacked him for it.
Indeed, when China sent a spy balloon over the U.S., Biden hesitated and let it cross the entire continent before ordering it to be shot down. In fact, much of the Left, from The Atlantic to The New York Times, have long told us that the Chinese model of a state-run economy is far superior to America’s freer iteration of a market economy.
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Yet, with a presidential election looming and the polls not looking so good for Biden, his administration is suddenly saying some very tough things about China.
A central reason for this is that the Biden administration clearly wants to distract American voters with a foreign threat — and they are willing to risk a horrifying war to do so.
President Biden greets Chinese President Xi Jinping before a meeting during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ week in Woodside, California, on Nov. 15, 2023. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
Next, this threat would empower the Biden administration’s ambitions on the domestic front; after all, if private and state-run companies all agree that the Chinese hacking threat is real, then they will feel obligated to give the FBI access to their computer systems and data now — at the same time, for security reasons, they’ll need to keep any details about this from the public. This then, would further empower the FBI by giving them more access to Americans’ data and more control of corporations at a time when the FBI has too often behaved as a partisan political player for Democrats.
We know, after all, where the U.S. intelligence agencies stand on Fourth Amendment-protected due process rights of U.S. citizens.
This isn’t to say that China isn’t a real threat. Many “red states” have passed legislation barring Chinese interests from purchasing land near military bases for this very reason. I am spelling this all out because the American public needs to be aware of all the nuance within this critical topic so they can at least try to vote this November for what is in their best interest — the Biden administration and various members of U.S. intelligence agencies, after all, have not always done what is in the best interest of the American public.
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Frank Miniter is the author of “The Year of the Dragon.”
