Republican Dances the China Two-Step With Democrats

Commentary The latest shock of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence in the United States is photographic evidence of Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) published in a Daily Caller series. The photos show her associating with two CCP-linked organizations. Rather than ask Chu to correct herself, the Democrats are as usual, claiming racism. Remember, the CCP is an anti-American totalitarian party engaged in a widely recognized genocide against China’s own minority groups. Why in the world would a U.S. politician get anywhere near them? How is supporting the party of genocide, the CCP, not one of the worst forms of racism? Granted, U.S. politicians with ties to foreign governments are nothing new. These include family financial links to authoritarian states that are becoming normalized in U.S. politics, including Biden family links to China, Trump family and campaign official links to Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia, and Clinton and Bush family links to China. Jointly, these ties involve the transfer of billions of dollars. So the $14,850 that Chu’s campaign reportedly received from the chairman of one of the alleged CCP front groups is small potatoes. But still, the principle of transparency should require Chu’s public acceptance of responsibility and apology for engaging with these groups, rather than thinly-evidenced allegations of racism against those who reported it (and similar charges against a non-Chinese White House official named John Podesta). Arguably, it is more racist to engage with an organization linked to genocide than to criticize such engagement, even if the criticism is sometimes a bit ham-fisted. Not criticizing links to genocidal organizations could itself be considered racist. Wanton allegations of racism to paper over yet worse racism is a form of racism in and of itself. But all this is lost on Democrats and their too often resort to the everything-is-racism bullhorn. Philip Lenczycki, a former professor of Mandarin and East Asian civilizations, who spent approximately six years in China, authored the Daily Caller series on the CCP links of Chu and Dominic Ng, President Joe Biden’s appointee to the Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council. Lenczycki’s meticulously documented and carefully worded articles have gotten the attention of Congress, though the Democrats are doing their best to discredit them, while ignoring the author’s credentials and the considerable evidence he marshals. Several House Republicans, led by Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas), are taking the research seriously, and called on the FBI to investigate Ng. (Gooden previously called for the removal of the security clearance of Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) for his past link to an alleged Chinese spy, so despite what the Democrats say, Chinese heritage is clearly not the issue.) Gooden said that the Democrat response to criticism of Ng, including from Chu, was to wrongly claim racism. He questioned her “loyalty or competence,” saying she should not have a security clearance or get confidential intelligence briefings “until this is figured out.” Given that Democrats control the presidency and Senate, most other House Republicans who want to achieve bipartisan legislation on China, are treating the allegations against Ng and Chu with kid gloves, and not coming to Gooden’s defense. Even Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, who is arguably the most prominent China hawk in Congress, had to publicly twist himself into pretzels on the issue, while following the two-step of his Democrat ranking member, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.). Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi appeared live on CBS on Monday, where the two made an initial friendly display of bipartisanship. But Krishnamoorthi soon reverted to bashing Republicans, who he said, horror of horrors, used the China spy balloon incident to criticize President Biden. (The president allowed the balloon to violate U.S. airspace for a week, before ordering it shot down. What’s not to criticize?) The America ChangLe Association in New York on Oct. 6, 2022. An overseas Chinese police outpost in New York, called the Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, is located inside the association building. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) Conversely, Gallagher focused squarely on the issue of the CCP, where Democrats and Republicans could agree, starting with Chinese police stations around the world, including “in the heart of New York City.” Krishnamoorthi then admitted that nonprofit organizations in the United States engage in espionage for the CCP, but did not draw a link back to the alleged CCP front groups with which Ng and Chu allegedly engaged. He then pivoted the conversation to the case of Chu—leaving out Ng, who is apparently too hot, or worthless politically, to defend. Chu is, after all, a vote in Congress. Ng is just a campaign

Republican Dances the China Two-Step With Democrats

Commentary

The latest shock of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence in the United States is photographic evidence of Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) published in a Daily Caller series. The photos show her associating with two CCP-linked organizations. Rather than ask Chu to correct herself, the Democrats are as usual, claiming racism.

Remember, the CCP is an anti-American totalitarian party engaged in a widely recognized genocide against China’s own minority groups. Why in the world would a U.S. politician get anywhere near them? How is supporting the party of genocide, the CCP, not one of the worst forms of racism?

Granted, U.S. politicians with ties to foreign governments are nothing new. These include family financial links to authoritarian states that are becoming normalized in U.S. politics, including Biden family links to China, Trump family and campaign official links to Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia, and Clinton and Bush family links to China. Jointly, these ties involve the transfer of billions of dollars.

So the $14,850 that Chu’s campaign reportedly received from the chairman of one of the alleged CCP front groups is small potatoes.

But still, the principle of transparency should require Chu’s public acceptance of responsibility and apology for engaging with these groups, rather than thinly-evidenced allegations of racism against those who reported it (and similar charges against a non-Chinese White House official named John Podesta).

Arguably, it is more racist to engage with an organization linked to genocide than to criticize such engagement, even if the criticism is sometimes a bit ham-fisted.

Not criticizing links to genocidal organizations could itself be considered racist. Wanton allegations of racism to paper over yet worse racism is a form of racism in and of itself.

But all this is lost on Democrats and their too often resort to the everything-is-racism bullhorn.

Philip Lenczycki, a former professor of Mandarin and East Asian civilizations, who spent approximately six years in China, authored the Daily Caller series on the CCP links of Chu and Dominic Ng, President Joe Biden’s appointee to the Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council.

Lenczycki’s meticulously documented and carefully worded articles have gotten the attention of Congress, though the Democrats are doing their best to discredit them, while ignoring the author’s credentials and the considerable evidence he marshals.

Several House Republicans, led by Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas), are taking the research seriously, and called on the FBI to investigate Ng. (Gooden previously called for the removal of the security clearance of Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) for his past link to an alleged Chinese spy, so despite what the Democrats say, Chinese heritage is clearly not the issue.)

Gooden said that the Democrat response to criticism of Ng, including from Chu, was to wrongly claim racism. He questioned her “loyalty or competence,” saying she should not have a security clearance or get confidential intelligence briefings “until this is figured out.”

Given that Democrats control the presidency and Senate, most other House Republicans who want to achieve bipartisan legislation on China, are treating the allegations against Ng and Chu with kid gloves, and not coming to Gooden’s defense.

Even Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, who is arguably the most prominent China hawk in Congress, had to publicly twist himself into pretzels on the issue, while following the two-step of his Democrat ranking member, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.).

Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi appeared live on CBS on Monday, where the two made an initial friendly display of bipartisanship. But Krishnamoorthi soon reverted to bashing Republicans, who he said, horror of horrors, used the China spy balloon incident to criticize President Biden. (The president allowed the balloon to violate U.S. airspace for a week, before ordering it shot down. What’s not to criticize?)

Epoch Times Photo
The America ChangLe Association in New York on Oct. 6, 2022. An overseas Chinese police outpost in New York, called the Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, is located inside the association building. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Conversely, Gallagher focused squarely on the issue of the CCP, where Democrats and Republicans could agree, starting with Chinese police stations around the world, including “in the heart of New York City.”

Krishnamoorthi then admitted that nonprofit organizations in the United States engage in espionage for the CCP, but did not draw a link back to the alleged CCP front groups with which Ng and Chu allegedly engaged. He then pivoted the conversation to the case of Chu—leaving out Ng, who is apparently too hot, or worthless politically, to defend. Chu is, after all, a vote in Congress. Ng is just a campaign donation of $135,500.

“One of my [Republican] colleagues unfortunately attacked Judy Chu, the first Chinese-American Congresswoman in the United States Congress, saying that somehow she’s not loyal to the United States,” Krishnamoorthi said. “I find that offensive as an Asian-American myself, and I want to hear Republicans also echo that sentiment that I just made because we have to make sure that in our conversations in the committee, we stay out of xenophobia, and we make sure that we keep the focus on the Chinese Communist Party.”

Krishnamoorthi did not explain how criticizing Chu, an American citizen, could be “xenophobia.” Implying that she is foreign by calling criticism of her “xenophobia,” or suggesting that she is beyond reproach due to her race, could both be considered racism. Neither did he explain how criticizing her engagement with a CCP-linked group is inconsistent with a focus on the CCP.

The CBS host, Margaret Brennan, swallowed the claim of xenophobia hook, line, and sinker, asking how the committee could ensure that its work was not distorted by bigotry. Again, there was no explanation of how Gooden’s opposition to engaging with the CCP, one of the most bigoted organizations in the world, was itself a form of bigotry.

Epoch Times Photo
Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) speaks in Washington in a file photograph. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Krishnamoorthi then again turned to Gallagher and goosed him to “echo my sentiments with regard to Judy Chu.” Krishnamoorthi said that the CCP wanted Congress to be fractious, so a united stand should be taken, by which he meant his own stand that papered over Chu’s engagement with organizations linked to the CCP.

Brennan then piled on, saying to Gallagher, “I think he asked you to call someone out,” apparently trying to spur Gallagher to denounce Gooden.

Gallagher should have said that he doesn’t “echo” anybody, and that he denounces all engagement with CCP front groups, including that of Chu and Ng, if that is indeed what they did. To ascertain the facts, they should both be investigated, along with Podesta and any members of the Biden, Trump, Bush, or Clinton families still doing business with China.

But instead, he partially complied. “We should not question anybody’s loyalty to the United States. I think that is out of bounds. It is beyond the pale.”

Humdrum. Business as usual. There’s nothing to see here.

The mainstream media quoted these first three apparently obligatory sentences of Gallagher’s widely, but omitted the on-air pressure tactics of Krishnamoorthi and Brennan. Neither did most media reproduce Gallagher’s next sentence, which saved his soul and gave credence to Lenczycki’s research in The Daily Caller.

“If there are concerns about a specific organization, and as a matter of fact the China Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification is tied, directly subordinate, to the United Front Work Department of the CCP, then we should work with our colleagues [e.g., Judy Chu] to apprise them that they may be targets for CCP United Front work, CCP influence. As a former counterintelligence officer, I can tell you we are a soft target in Congress. But absolutely, we shouldn’t question anybody’s loyalty.”

Thanks to Gallagher’s impressive diplomatic skills and ability to take partisan hits with a bipartisan smile, at least America has a running start against the CCP for his committee’s first hearing on Tuesday.

But his forced denunciation of a fellow Republican who raised a legitimate concern, and ignoring Congress’ own links and culpability, is not a good sign. Don’t hold your breath for the committee to cover corporate donations to members of Congress that come with expectations to look the other way as Amazon, Apple, and Nike exploit near-slave labor in China, for example. 

Gallagher is busy doing the yeoman’s work of burnishing the patina of bipartisanship that may hopefully result in bills emerging from the committee that can then pass muster in the Democratic Senate and presidency. Good for him.

But he should remember that, if Krishnamoorthi and Chu are any indication, the Democrats are simultaneously exacting their pound of flesh by using Republicans like himself to paper over soft-on-China failures of the past and present. From both parties, America will ultimately demand the simple truth, and full accountability, even of politicians and their donors.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.