There is a wealth of stories about Chinese infiltration of American politics, culture, and infrastructure, and politicians are not taking this issue as seriously as they should be.
On Monday, the mayor of Arcadia, California, Eileen Wang, was charged with acting as an illegal foreign agent of the Chinese government. According to the Justice Department, Wang was regularly in communication with Chinese officials and Chinese agents, peddling Chinese propaganda at their behest on her website without disclosing it.
WHY DOES THE US OFTEN FACE TWO CHINAS?
Arcadia has a population of about 55,000. Wang is not even a true mayor — the Arcadia City Council rotates the mayor position among its members. So, if the Chinese government is willing to invest time and resources into manipulating someone so relatively unimportant in American politics, what other areas is it willing to try to infiltrate?
We already have some ideas about the answer to that question. Linda Sun, a former top aide to Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) and her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, was also charged with serving as a Chinese agent. She allegedly blocked Taiwanese officials from meeting with New York officials and invited a Chinese official to eavesdrop on private government calls during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the late chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, unknowingly employed a Chinese spy. Another Chinese agent worked in Democratic circles in the San Francisco Bay Area, famously getting close to former Rep. Eric Swalwell, a House Intelligence Committee member.
We also know that China is trying to get its claws into every aspect of American life. Chinese propaganda is funneled through universities, most famously through “Confucius Institutes.” We now have multiple cases of Chinese nationals attempting to smuggle damaging biological agents into university systems. There have also been multiple illegal Chinese biolabs discovered operating on American soil in Reedley, California, and Las Vegas. China is attempting to buy up American farmland, which is a national security risk even before you consider that much of it is conveniently located near American military bases.
And yet, most Democrats and far too many Republicans don’t seem to care much about this issue. The continued operation of TikTok, the Chinese propaganda and spyware app, in the U.S. is a prime example of this, with Democrats fully embracing the app while Republicans let President Donald Trump ignore Congress as he refuses to enforce a ban on the app as he is required to by law.
China is the biggest threat to global stability and American national security, and Chinese leaders have shown the lengths they are willing to go to infiltrate American life. In an era of worsening partisan polarization, this should be the one issue Republicans and Democrats are able to agree on and confront.