For years I have warned that the Chinese Communist Party has been working to infiltrate America’s society and government at every level.
The safety and sovereignty of our nation depends on our ability to counter this threat.
That is the exact message I brought to the National Governors Association as secretary of state in 2020 — an association chaired by then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
It appears that neither Cuomo nor his successor, Gov. Hochul, took my warnings seriously.
This week, Linda Sun, an aide who had served in the offices of both governors, was charged with acting as an agent of the Chinese Communist Party.
In the unsealed indictment, it was revealed that Sun and her husband had received millions in laundered cash from the Chinese Communist Party and, in return, “worked to further the interests of the Chinese government and the CCP.”
Among her many treasonous activities, Sun had worked to block Taiwanese officials from being able to contact the governor’s office since 2016, ensured content in speeches and press releases accorded with CCP-approved language, granted CCP officials access to high-level state government discussions such as COVID response efforts and even personally participated — in the capacity of a senior New York state official — in the CCP-organized protest against the democratically-elected president of Taiwan, who was visiting New York City.
While these details may come as a shock to some, this is exactly how the CCP operates. Beijing seeks to influence every level of our society, from the federal government to universities, to state senates and even PTA meetings.
We cannot treat this threat as something that is far away, across a vast ocean. The CCP is inside the gates.
I saw this firsthand during my time as secretary of state in the Trump administration.
Confucius Institutes had proliferated on college campuses across our country, spreading the CCP’s propaganda to our younger generations.
We stopped nearly all of it by designating the Confucius Institute program a foreign mission — although we only scratched the surface in combatting Beijing’s influence operations within our universities.
We placed the same designation on the National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification, a group that answers to the CCP-controlled United Front Work Department and coordinates “Sister City” programs with metropolitan areas all over America and the world.
We also shut down the largest espionage effort in US history when we closed down the CCP’s consulate in Houston, from which CCP agents had been coordinating massive levels of industrial espionage and intellectual property theft.
Asleep on the job
This commitment to keeping America safe from CCP infiltration has been woefully neglected by the Biden-Harris administration.
Early last year, a Chinese spy balloon was allowed to traverse the continental US before finally being shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
The Biden-Harris administration did not hold the CCP accountable.
Inexplicably, the Biden-Harris White House also shut down the China Initiative, an anti-espionage program started in the Trump administration focused solely on the CCP’s malign activities.
And the open southern border has allowed tens of thousands of Chinese nationals — many of them military-aged males — to cross into our country illegally with no real safeguards.
Last year, Biden welcomed CCP Chairman Xi Jinping to San Francisco with open arms, feting him as if he were a conquering king.
We now know that in the days surrounding that conference, Chinese diplomats were also working with pro-CCP diaspora groups here in the US to intimidate, harass, and silence Americans who protested Xi Jinping’s policies — many of whom were first-, second- or third-generation Chinese-American immigrants who know better than anyone just how wicked the CCP truly is.
As for Kamala Harris, you can count on one hand the number of times she has mentioned the Chinese Communist Party on the campaign trail.
She won’t dare say a bad word about China.
The American people should ask why.
The truth is that Biden, Harris, Hochul and other progressive leaders dominating the left live in a fantasy world.
They believe that the US relationship with the CCP should be based on mutual understanding, fair competition and cooperation around issues like climate change.
This is a dangerous delusion that gives the CCP all the room it needs to infiltrate our government and society.
America will only be secure if our relationship with China is centered on the understanding of the CCP’s ideological hostility toward America, on transparency and reciprocity.
If American entities cannot buy land in China next to a Chinese military base, we should not allow it to happen here.
If American firms must consent to technology transfers and CCP overwatch to do business in China, it should not be so easy for Chinese firms to do business here.
If our diplomats cannot freely and privately communicate with Chinese citizens, we should have no tolerance whatsoever for CCP officials doing the same with American citizens.
The list goes on and on.
We are throwing our gates open to our enemies. It has to stop, and it will only stop if we elect leaders at all levels of our government — starting with Donald Trump — who see this threat clearly and will keep America free and safe.
Mike Pompeo was US secretary of state from 2018 to 2021.
