As a student of information and propaganda, I’m hearing a rising chorus of voices arguing that American worries about China’s technology-based drive for global dominance are “overblown.” This comes as the special House committee starts its deliberations. The timing is conspicuous.
First is Jonah Goldberg, a conservative syndicated columnist writing in the Los Angeles Times here. The headline is “How the U.S. Can Turn China From a Foe Into a Friendly Competitor.” Here is the flavor of what he argues, with MY RESPONSES IN ALL CAPS:
“More importantly, economic “competitiveness” has always been an incoherent concept. (REALLY? IS SEEMS VERY CLEAR TO ME.) A rich China would be good for America and the world — if China had a good government. (THAT’S A HUGE IF.) Trade creates winners and losers, but it creates more winners than losers. If China became a constitutional democracy such as Japan, it would be in our interest for it to become rich. (WHAT IS HE SMOKING? CHINA AS A CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY?)
“In other words, China’s threat comes primarily from nature of the regime itself. And that threat is worsening because President Xi Jinping has been turning his back on the economic model that lifted his country out of poverty. He is returning to authoritarian measures … (AND HOW. HE HAS ELIMINATED ALL THREATS TO HIS CONTINUED RULE.)
HERE’S GOLDBERG’S CONCLUSION. “I’m all for taking a hard line on China, but that line should provide a path toward China being a friendly economic competitor, not an implacable strategic foe.” HOW DO WE TURN XI JINPING INTO A FRIENDLY GUY? XI IS A HARDCORE MARXIST-LENINIST WHO BELIEVES IT IS HIS DESTINY TO ESTABLISH CHINA AS A GREATER WORLD POWER THAN THE UNITED STATES. THIS HAS BEEN DOCUMENTED TIME AND TIME AGAIN. WHO IS PAYING GOLDBERG TO WRITE THIS STUFF?
A second article that makes the “overblown” argument is the MIT Technology Review, for which I usually have great respect. In an article behind a pay wall, columnist Zeyi Yang dismisses all concerns about TikTok, Temu, Capcut and Shein, four Chinese applications that are selling like hot cakes to unsuspecting Americans. The fact that they are controlled from China and tech companies there must share their data with the Communist Party does not seem to concern Zeyi Yang. She writes: “To be clear, there are real concerns about these apps’ privacy protocols. But I believe most of the anxiety around having Chinese apps on our phones is overblown and politicized.
“I’m not alone. Kevin Xu, a technologist and the author behind the bilingual newsletter Interconnected, wrote last week that “the DC policymaking circle has moved beyond TikTok to construct an all-encompassing worldview where all apps made by Chinese tech companies are bad.”
“And Xu says even the risks surrounding TikTok have been overblown. ‘There is currently an evidentiary gap of actual harm that TikTok has done to any actual American that’s of a national security nature,’ he tells me.”
THE REASON THERE’S AN EVIDENTIARY GAP IS THAT THE COMPANY HAS CONSISTENTLY LIED ABOUT ITS PRACTICES AND HIDDEN WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING BEHIND A WALL OF HAPPY TALK AND ARM-TWISTING IN WASHINGTON. THE UNITED STATES’ NATIONAL SECURITY IS CLEARLY AT RISK IF MORE THAN 100 MILLION AMERICANS ARE USING APPS THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT CAN ACCESS.
So dear reader, beware of arguments that all concerns about China are “overblown.” It seems to be an emerging “party” line. See Michael McLaughlin’s and my analysis here on Amazon. The book is available on pre-order.
