the Miley Cyrus Wrecking Ball
Our forty-plus year relationship with Communist China has been, on the main, really, REALLY awful for our country.
China has taken from us tens of trillions of dollars and tens of millions of jobs.
Communist China has stolen tens of trillions of dollars more – of our Intellectual Property (IP) and via mandated technology transfers.
We have straight-up borrowed $1.2 trillion from them – to continue to fund our government’s spending stupidity.
China has taken our hundreds of trillions – and used it against us all over the world.
China keeps illegally expanding its footprint in the South China Sea.
Our (now, thankfully, receding) problems with eternally feeble North Korea – are really additional problems with China.
China is expanding its military presence in Africa. And in South America. And central America. China is propping up the failed Communist state of Venezuela.
Notice how we’re being surrounded.
And worse than all of that – is China’s massive incursions into the US.
China hacks the living daylight out of…well, just about everything Internet and electronic.
Understanding the Chinese Communist Party’s Approach to Cyber-Enabled Economic Warfare
China has for decades been dumping hundreds of millions into our colleges:
“The Chinese government’s influence over American universities is broad and deep, ranging from such subtle pressures as the denial of visas for vocal American scholars to more overt efforts, including opening Chinese cultural institutes on U.S. college campuses, experts on human rights and education told lawmakers Thursday.
“That influence has become more pronounced as American universities open satellite campuses in the country and welcome Chinese government-funded programs on their stateside campuses, experts said.”
Just in case you thought our universities weren’t yet Communist enough. When we say College IS for Dummies – we mean it.
China is buying trillions in our real estate.
But as bad as ALL of this is, the worst of it all is…their owning our domestic infrastructure.
To wit: Our trains. On an average workday, more than fifteen million Americans ride the rails. China owning large swaths of the network is…more than a mite problematic.
The Consequences of Inviting China into US Rail Transportation:
“A group of U.S. scientists – all with top secret security clearances – takes the subway to a conference on missile defense. Tracking their movements and communications (using the train’s built-in WiFi), and matching each scientist to a prepared dossier, Chinese operatives quickly insinuate a human intelligence asset into the mix. That asset, armed with intimate personal information about each scientist, gains their trust through fake connections and credentials.
“But how did the Chinese collect and leverage all this information? Simple: they made the train.
“The (Communist Chinese government’s) Made in China (MIC) 2025 initiative sets aggressive goals for market share in advanced rail transportation equipment: 30 percent in developed countries by 2020 and 40 percent by 2025.
“These goals are quickly becoming reality in the United States. Over the past two years, a single Chinese company signed contracts to provide passenger rail cars to municipal public transit systems in Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston….
“Thus, via a state-owned rail company, China has established a heavy foothold that spans the United States.”
Well isn’t all of that fantastic national security news. That state-owned passenger rail company – is the China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC).
Chinese Rail Manufacturer CRRC Breaks Ground on U.S. Plant
Chinese Rail Firm Makes Inroads with U.S. Factory and Boston Transit Deal
China’s CRRC Lands $1.3 Billion Chicago Rail Car Project
Chinese Train Manufacturer Wins US Metro Deal
“But, but…free markets!” the free traders screech. “If China submits the lowest bid – China should get the gig.”
Yeah. Except this is the Communist Chinese GOVERNMENT – submitting government-money-subsidized bids. There is absolutely no way private American companies can compete with that. So China can swoop in – and rapidly scoop up almost all US railway gigs.
This is a lot of things – free markets it ain’t. And again, it absolutely ain’t good for our nation’s security.
Brigadier General John Adams, US Army (Retired) just released a report saying so:
In which he in part writes:
“U.S. freight rail is crucial to our nation’s global economic competitiveness and a strategic asset that our armed forces depend upon to maintain readiness and preserve our defense capacity.
“Yet, while we have recognized certain threats to the security of our freight rail system, we have begun to allow foreign interests to make incursions into the rail industry in ways that could threaten our national interests for decades to come….
“(The(re are) many reasons that we should be concerned about the advancing efforts by the Government of China to take control of U.S. freight rail….
“CRRC’s own bylaws state that the company will seek guidance from the Communist Party of China on significant matters affecting the company’s operations.
“Three of CRRC’s current board members previously held high-level positions at state-owned defense companies, Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), which produces fighter and bomber aircraft, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles for the Chinese Army, and China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), which produces submarines, warships, and other naval equipment for the Chinese Navy.
“Furthermore, two former CRRC board members held positions at AVIC and China North Industries Group Corporation Limited (NORINCO), a state-owned defense company that supplies tanks, aircraft, missiles, firearms, and related products for the Chinese military.
“The latter two of these entities, CSIC and NORINCO, have been subject to allegations of espionage and sanctions evasion by the U.S. government, raising serious questions about the connections of CRRC board members to these activities.
“In 2007, AVIC was reputed to have stolen data on the F-35 fighter jet from Lockheed Martin and used it to build the Chinese J-31 fighter.
“Similarly, CSIC was indicted in 2016 by the U.S. Department of Justice for entering into contracts with another Chinese company for the purchase of industrial materials that were created using stolen trade secrets from an American firm.
“NORINCO has also been sanctioned by the U.S. State Department on six occasions for contributing to Iranian nuclear weapons development.
“Two of CRRC’s board members were respectively employed in highlevel positions at CSIC and NORINCO at the time these offenses occurred, suggesting that they were likely aware of, if not complicit in, this illicit activity.”
Well isn’t all of that special.
Thankfully, our Congress is starting to wake up to China’s mass locomotive incursion. In July:
Senate Agrees to One-Year Ban on Transit Rail Car and Bus Procurements from Chinese-Owned Companies:
“(T)he U.S. Senate agreed to a one-year ban on any new procurements of mass transit rail cars or buses from companies owned or subsidized by the government of the People’s Republic of China, if the procurement uses any Federal Transit Administration formula or bus funding.”
But that ain’t nearly enough.
The correct thing to do is end it – not extend it.
And find a way to as quickly as possible extricate ourselves from the problem – by ridding ourselves of any and all existing Chinese rail ownership.
Just about no good comes from the Communist Chinese government owning…anything in the US.
Certainly not our vital infrastructure.
Which our trains and railways certainly are.
This first appeared in Red State.