Book details China’s stealth influence on U.S. elites

FPI / April 11, 2023

In his recently released best seller "When China Attacks: A Warning to America", retired Col. Grant Newsham blames American elites for losing a war with Communist China that most Americans did not know was happening.

"These fools built up the PRC economy and military into a force that could beat us, and weakened their own country in the process. And once again, the Chinese communists did it (or had us do it to ourselves) without firing a shot.," Newsham said in a recent interview.

His book details the results of the decades-long political warfare attack that communist China has already waged on its perceived enemies and what a devastating near-future attack on Taiwan might look like.

Col. Newsham is a former intelligence officer who spent 40 years in the military and government. He argues that the ruling Chinese Communist Party does not distinguish between peacetime and wartime. Instead, China’s leaders and government see themselves as engaged in a constant state of conflict with enemies, with the United States as the main adversary.

Xi's ultimate goal is to replace the United States as the world’s sole superpower, and a key to that goal is building up China’s military strength, Newsham said.

“America and Americans need to realize that they are, in fact, already at war with China. It may not be ‘war’ by American standards, but to the People’s Republic of China it certainly is,” Newsham told The Washington Times.

Newsham, a former Foreign Service officer in Asia, said U.S. elites need to understand that they are at risk of losing the conflict to the communist juggernaut led by Xi Jinping.

“If the United States — or better said, Wall Street and our business class — don’t stop funding the Chinese economy, and by extension the People’s Liberation Army, we really can’t expect to prevail. If we do not respond intelligently, before we realize it, we will become the United States with Chinese characteristics.”

The following are excerpts from The Sunday Guardian's Cleo Paskal's interview with Newsham:

Q: How is an attack from China different than what the United States might be expecting?

Newsham: It’s almost unrecognizable—not least because America’s ruling class has steadfastly refused to recognize it. The Americans tend to think a “war” only happens when both sides kind of agree to it — and shooting starts. And until that happens, it’s all just a misunderstanding — and there’s a potential for working things out. This reflects the American trait — indeed, conceit — that any problem can be resolved by talking.

Q: How bad is it getting in the U.S.?

Newsham: It’s bad. Consider that Chinese origin fentanyl killed about 70,000 Americans last year. 70,000 for crying out loud... Chinese economic warfare deserves special attention. Starting 40 years ago, but really “super-charged” from the 1980s and kept going after the PRC was allowed into the World Trade Organization in the early 2000s, America’s business and financial classes moved huge chunks of American industry and business to the PRC—“decoupling” American workers from their livelihoods and lives. These fools built up the PRC economy and military into a force that could beat us, and weakened their own country in the process. And once again, the Chinese communists did it (or had us do it to ourselves) without firing a shot.

Q: Your subtitle is “A Warning to America”. You spent over two decades in Japan, have you seen similar things there?

Newsham: Of course. It’s just as bad in Japan — at least among Japan’s ruling political and business classes. Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was long considered dominated by “pro-China” types. Even a number of Prime Ministers had far deeper ties with China than were healthy. Recall former Prime Minister’s Ryutaro Hashimoto’s Chinese girlfriend, and said to be an MSS agent too boot? Some years back a prominent Japanese politician led a “study tour” to the PRC with dozens of Diet Members. You can imagine how they thought about China after they’d been shown a “good time”. Japanese businesses also poured into China — without much concern for protecting technology. Indeed, Keidanren, the association of industry, has always been considered to be “pro-China” and a brake on any government efforts to recognize and deal with the PRC threat. Japan’s military was also restrained from developing into a proper force that could actually defend the country. This was partly owing to Chinese influence and fears of “angering China”. Unlike in the U.S., however, the Japanese public has always had a much better sense of the Chinese communists than has the “political class”. And the Japan Self-Defense Force at least recognized the PRC threat a good decade or two before American commanders finally woke up. I once saw the commander of U.S. Army Pacific belittle Japanese senior officers who tried to warn of the Chinese threat. This was a decade ago. It’s no surprise the US military is now fretting about how to handle the Chinese threat.

Q: What’s the difference between the approaches of State, the White House and Congress to China?

Newsham: Parts of Congress are waking up to the PRC threat and some parts of it have always been awake. They haven’t been able to shape U.S. policy towards the PRC in any meaningful — or necessary — way just yet. The donor class still prevails.

Note the Select Committee on China that’s meeting now, and headed by Congressman Mike Gallagher. This is a serious effort to expose the Chinese communist threat and to do something about it. Both Republicans and Democrats are involved.

But it is late in the day, and there’s still a number of representatives who oppose pushing back against China. Former representatives and senators seem worst of all. And there’s a former US ambassador to China who is practically a mouthpiece for PRC interests.

State Department? By and large, too often over the several decades I’ve been following this subject, the default approach to anything involving China is: “We don’t want to make China angry.” Or, “We need China’s cooperation with (fill-in-the-blank) so we must overlook whatever harmful thing they’ve done.”

The White House? It depends. This administration probably doesn’t scare the Chinese communists very much, if at all. The Trump administration did scare them — and it was the first one — Republican or Democrat — that did. The Chinese despised Pompeo, Pottinger, Stilwell, Yu, Navarro, and some others, and wanted them off the field. They got their wish.

But when the Chinese communists complain about something you pretty much know you’re doing something good and should do more of it. Keep in mind, that Chinese political warfare and influence in America was so wide ranging and longstanding that even the Trump administration faced a fierce internal fight between officials who wanted to defend US interests and other officials (i.e., Secretary of Treasury among others) who wanted to placate the PRC.

Free Press International
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