Fortress America

On the Other Hand: The West Must Recognize That Beijing Is an Enemy of Western Civilization

Conrad Black has been one of Canada’s most prominent financiers for 40 years and was one of the leading newspaper publishers in the world. He’s the author of authoritative biographies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, and, most recently, Donald J. Trump.

He writes: “The arrest of Linda Sun, a former chief of staff to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and an aide to the previous governor, Andrew Cuomo, and of her husband, Chris Hu, as undisclosed agents of the People’s Republic of China has again raised very serious questions about the depth and extent of Chinese espionage and interference in Western countries.

Ms. Sun is accused of repeatedly intervening to prevent Taiwanese officials from meeting Hochul and of using her office to advance the interests in the United States of the Chinese Communist Party specifically and a great many official and private Chinese clients seeking access and preferments.

The spectacle of an American criminal prosecution always has its amusing aspects, and as a practical matter, it is doubtful that the chief of staff to the governor of New York could provide the Chinese regime with information or services of very great use to them. But this case has dramatically raised the issue of improper Chinese official meddling in the West. It came to light that long-serving Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein had a Chinese agent on her staff for many years and that Rep. Eric Swalwell (who may have conducted the most unsuccessful campaign for presidential nomination in history) had a sexual affair with an outright communist Chinese female agent.

In Canada, there has been an extensive investigation into Chinese attempts to influence the election of the mayor of Vancouver and several federal members of Parliament. Although there has been no official response to it, it is generally recognized that much of the rise of the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei was based on comprehensive industrial espionage against the formerly great Canadian telecommunications company Northern Telecom, in consequence of which Nortel descended from a vastly successful corporation into bankruptcy.

The Chinese technique appears to be to focus on well-placed people of Chinese ancestry with relatives in the People’s Republic and implies with a minimum of subtlety that the relatives in China could benefit from the cooperation of targeted Chinese Americans—and similarly could suffer from the noncooperation of the relatives in the United States with the wishes of the Beijing regime.

There does not appear to be much evidence— or at least publicized evidence— that the Chinese penetrated areas of maximum national security sensitivity in the United States. The closest that seems to have come to light, as alleged by the Republicans, is the claim that the Clinton administration had authorized the sale of sensitive defense technology to the People’s Republic of China, possibly in consideration for substantial Chinese contributions to the Democratic presidential campaign of 1996 and the Clinton Foundation. These charges could never be seriously investigated because the Chinese individuals involved returned to China (as did Swalwell’s chum Fang Fang), and the Chinese declined to make them available for questioning by American officials.

The Chinese agents seem to be doing exactly what the U.S. and Canadian governments wrongly believed the Japanese government was doing in the early 1940s, when approximately 150,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians were confined to camps. They were adequately fed and sheltered, not mistreated or overworked, but their property was confiscated and sold at unrealistically low prices. Yet there was never one jot of evidence that any of them was guilty of anything, and they were all citizens entitled to due process, which they did not receive.

It is a little repeated fact of American history that the chief advocate of these mistreated Japanese Americans was the head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, who said he had honeycombed their organization with agents and that none of them was conducting espionage, sabotage, or any other inappropriate activity. The detentions and confiscations were proceeded with anyway in a climate of national hysteria after Pearl Harbor. It was nonsense, as the Japanese Americans, who made up the majority of the population of the Hawaiian Islands, were not bothered since they provided most of the employees for the military bases there. It was not the finest hour for the icons of American liberalism such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Henry Stimson, John McCloy, and Felix Frankfurter.

This subject is going to have to be taken a great deal more seriously than it has been. Our governments will have to devise some combination of insulation for those people of Chinese ancestry subject to blackmail and retaliation directly against China to bring this intolerable activity to an end. The great Western campaign to befriend China has been an almost complete failure, and it is time for the Western nations to revise their policies in these matters to account for the fact that China aspires to be not only our rival, but the victorious rival to Western civilization.”

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Citizen Richard Thornton of Arlington, VA writes: “In June 1950, Gen. Douglas Mac-Arthur formulated the essential importance of Taiwan to America. He described the island as an “unsinkable aircraft carrier and submarine tender,” which, in hostile hands, could “checkmate counteroffensive operations by the United States forces based on Okinawa and the Philippines.”

It wasn’t necessary that the U.S. occupy the island, he said, but a friendly regime was essential. Otherwise, China’s control of Taiwan would let Beijing control access and egress to Japan and South Korea. Taiwan is thus a vital part of the U.S. defense posture in the Pacific and our larger strategy toward China.

Mr. Colby’s view that Taiwan isn’t a matter of “existential importance” to the U.S. is a defeatist and distracting formulation. An existential threat is one that threatens our very existence, such as a meteor strike. Of course Taiwan isn’t that, but it is a vital interest for which we will fight—and the Chinese know it.”

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Taiwan and America’s Crucial First Line of Defense in the Pacific 

John Bolton served as White House national security adviser, 2018-19, and ambassador to the United Nations, 2005-06. He writes: “China’s recent incursions into Japan’s airspace and territorial waters materially escalate Beijing’s efforts to intimidate and dominate nations in the Indo-Pacific. Tokyo responded by announcing a multibillion-dollar satellite program to bolster detection capabilities against such intrusions.

Chinese “fishing vessels” have in the past periodically sailed near the Senkaku islands, which are claimed by Japan, Taiwan and China. Chinese coast guard ships and military vessels later began to appear, ratcheting up Beijing’s aggressiveness. Washing--ton doesn’t explicitly recognize Tokyo’s sovereignty over the Senkakus but has committed to defend the islands under the U.S.-Japan mutual cooperation and security treaty.

These escalating forays follow Chinese interference in Taiwan’s airspace and waters, and its efforts to assert sovereignty over most of the South China Sea. Chinese naval encounters with the Philippines over disputed islands, shoals and reefs have made headlines. Vietnam and others have often faced Chinese challenges.

None of this is coincidental. Beijing is unmistakably contesting control of the First Island Chain. This variously described topography extends from the Kamchatka Peninsula to the Kuril islands, through

Japan and the Senkakus to Taiwan, on to the Philippines and then Borneo and the Malay Peninsula.

America’s next president will have to face the strategic consequences of this belligerence. Climate-change negotiations with Beijing should no longer top Washington’s East Asia agenda. Tweets suggesting China consult Google Maps won’t suffice, though they at least show someone on Team Biden understands the problem.

With China pressing all along the First Island Chain, existing U.S. bilateral cooperation with affected states like Japan and Taiwan has plainly become insufficient. Finding seams in the intelligence or defense capabilities across the chain is far easier for Beijing when such efforts among the targets are absent.

If China breaks through the First Island Chain at one place, other states in the chain and the Pacific would be at greater risk. Washington should recognize that the integrity of each nation’s air and maritime spaces requires multilateral cooperation, especially among air and naval forces and the intelligence communities of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand. Given the high stakes, involving other Asian and Pacific states, along with key European allies like Britain, could be critical.

Such cooperation doesn’t require creating an East Asian North Atlantic Treaty Organization or accepting a decision to contain China—at least not yet. More-robust multistate activities are nevertheless urgently needed across the island chain. Several areas of multilateral cooperation are already under way, but if much more isn’t done, Beijing will play one nation against another, calibrating belligerent activities along its periphery to advance its interests. If the affected nations don’t hang together, to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, China may well hang them all separately.

A possible model is George W. Bush’s Proliferation Security Initiative against trafficking in weapons of mass destruction. A British diplomat described PSI as “an activity, not an organization,” almost entirely operational and not overtly political. Its success rested on military and intelligence exchanges and exercises, only rarely involving diplomatic palavering among foreign ministries. What worked for PSI on a global basis can work in Asia and the Pacific.

The elephant in the room is Taiwan. Without it, there is little chance other concerned countries can effectively thwart China’s destabilizing efforts. This time it isn’t Taipei asking for help, but other regional capitals that need help as much as Taipei. Losing effective control over what Douglas MacArthur labeled an “unsinkable aircraft carrier”—much less actual Chinese annexation—would fatally breach the First Island Chain. There are ways around the Taiwan dilemma that would irritate Beijing. But that need not precipitate a political crisis unless China is resolved to have one, which in itself would reveal Beijing’s hostile intent.

Long before the Abraham Accords established full diplomatic relations among Israel and several Arab states, they were working together. Wide ranging intelligence cooperation, especially over the common threat of Iran, stimulated creative, mutually advantageous ways to do business. In another context, West Germany’s somewhat anomalous status didn’t prevent its full integration into NATO. Instead of hypothesizing about obstacles to closer cooperation with Taiwan, Asian and U.S. diplomats should emulate their predecessors and include Taiwan in collective security.

More Chinese air and sea incursions are coming, along with increased influence operations in Asian and Pacific countries and more intelligence- gathering efforts. Beijing is dictating the pace and scope of its intrusions, underscoring the need for closer cooperation among its targets. That alone would augment deterrence, but we haven’t got time to waste."

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The main problem with the dependence upon our European allies is quite problematic.

Nations Prepare for a Post-European World 

The Wall Street Journal editorial board writes: ‘As Donald Trump was preparing his triumphant return to the White House, American allies in Europe are waking up to a disagreeable reality. In Mr. Trump’s second term, the U.S. is going to be more powerful relative to its core allies than at any time in decades—and Mr. Trump’s second term is going to be even more disruptive and confrontational than his first.

Sadly, with the exception of the U.S., much of the West is sunk in decline. A generation of poor performance in the European Union and Japan means that America’s traditional partners bring less and less to the table each year. Japan seems to be undergoing an awakening. But many of our most important European allies are contending with three decades of economic, political and strategic failure.

Economically, our European partners and friends are failing the test of the digital age, generating neither the new technologies nor companies that the 21st-century demands. Their embrace of ruinous climate policies reduces their competitiveness. Their NIMBYism throttles growth, and their unsustainable welfare states further diminish their prospects.

Politically, our friends haven’t succeeded in making the EU great. Individual European states are too small to have much effect on global events, and when they try to act together, they punch below their weight. The EU bureaucracy moves too slowly and often with too many reservations and compromises to maintain Europe’s place among leading global actors. Meanwhile, partially as a result of a massive failure to manage migration policy and its consequences, the political establishment in country after country is losing ground to radical movements, sometimes on the left but more often on the right.

Strategically, the failure is even more dramatic. Europe is more vulnerable to Middle East disorder, Russian aggression and predatory Chinese economic policies than the U.S. is, but its responses to these and other challenges are as inept as they are insufficient. Even as waves of refugees from an exploding Middle East and North Africa triggered political and social crises across Europe, European diplomacy has remained essentially irrelevant in the region.

Europe has been passive in the face of Houthi interference with Red Sea commerce. Russia has kicked France out of Africa. Almost three years into Russia’s war in Ukraine, Europe still feeds Vladimir Putin’s war machine by buying Russian energy. Europe’s poorly conceived green policies have positioned China to destroy the automobile industry, a pillar of Europe’s economy and social stability.

As a result, Europe needs the U.S. more than ever but is less well situated to influence American policy—or to help the U.S. meet our many global challenges—than at any time in decades. This is why the leaders of once-great European powers tremble at every tweet from Mar-a-Lago and why Mr. Trump’s second term holds more challenges for Europe than his first.

For Europeans, the shift from Team Biden’s largely uncritical support will be painful. “Germany is my country’s closest and most important of allies,” President Biden told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in October. For Team Biden, getting along with Germany was the foundation of smart foreign policy. That the Germans have been consistently and gravely wrong about Russia, China, Iran, climate, migration, the importance of strong defense and the condition of their own economy never seems to have registered with an American president whose worldview comes out of the 1970s and 1980s.

Under the circumstances, it’s easy to understand the schadenfreude with which much of MAGA World regards a weakened and demoralized Europe. The contempt with which Germany and the European establishment generally rejected President Trump’s correct and important criticisms of misguided European foreign and domestic policies still rankles.

But no matter how satisfying, settling scores isn’t how you make America great again. European decline isn’t good for the U.S. With the axis of revisionists on the prowl, Team Trump will need all the help it can get, and America’s goal must be to resuscitate Europe rather than to dance on its grave.

Europe has abdicated its role in history. The coming administration must work with partners like Japan that have the strategic clarity that so many Europeans lack. Countries like Israel, India, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have read the signs of the times more accurately than our European friends. Argentina’s awakening from the fever dream of Peronism creates important opportunities in the Western Hemisphere. Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand matter more than most European states to the future of American foreign policy.

Mr. Biden’s words to Mr. Scholz were sincere and heartfelt. But Europe is no longer the center of America’s foreign- policy universe, and barring a near-miraculous European recovery, future presidents will likely follow Mr. Trump’s lead in shaping their policies for the new post-Western world.”

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A case in point: From Russia to the Houthis With Love

The Wall Street Journal editorial board writes: “President Biden devoted his farewell address at the United Nations on Tuesday to the virtues of diplomacy and celebrating his work on behalf of global democracy. It was impossible to listen to his words and not wonder what world he is living in. It’s certainly not the real one of growing disorder, and the latest evidence is the news that Iran is helping to broker the delivery of Russian antiship missiles to the Houthis in Yemen.

Reuters reported this week that Iran is engaging in secret talks to help the Houthis obtain advanced Yakhont missiles, known as P-800 Oniks, from Moscow. These would help the terrorist group more precisely target commercial ships in the Red Sea, complementing the large ballistic and cruise-missile inventory the group has fielded from Iran.

The Journal reported earlier this year that the Kremlin was pondering an antiship missile shipment in retaliation for the U.S. decision to let Ukraine use U.S.-supplied weapons to strike inside Russian territory.

The news highlights the utter failure of American deterrence against the Houthis and Iran. The Houthis keep firing at merchant ships in the Red Sea, even tankers carrying oil that could spill into the ocean. The Biden Administration made a show of assembling a coalition called Operation Prosperity Guardian to defend the shipping lanes.

But in practice the U.S. has responded with the military equivalent of strongly worded letters—small missile strikes on Houthi launchers that do no lasting damage to the group’s ability to hold shipping hostage. The Administration feared a more forceful response would lead to a regional war. The irony is that U.S passivity has now led to a growing regional conflict.

The Iran-Russia cooperation underscores the extent to which these regional powers are becoming a global menace. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are working as a de facto axis, arming and assisting each other to threaten their neighbors and spread mayhem.

NATO has called China a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and Russia is helping Iran sow chaos in the Middle East.

This is President Biden’s real foreign-policy legacy, rather than his sunshine and lollypops view that “the center has held” against this threat. The disorder is growing. Neither of the two presidential candidates has offered the American public a realistic vision of how to deal with this new reality. The vandals will continue to march until America wakes up.”

Next time: A Culture From Tyranny to Freedom