Kevin Dellicker for U.S. Congress

During the past two weeks, I’ve released a series of communications about the emergent threat from China to our American way of life. As the Olympics wrap up and Americans return to their daily routines, I hope these warnings will serve as a wake-up call to local voters, politicians, and businesspeople about the true nature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and what it means to us

China endeavors to present itself as a normal partner in the community of nations. I’ve offered ten reasons why that’s not true. In fact, China is an international pariah that oppresses its citizens, threatens its neighbors, and steals from Americans. I’ve also explained how these issues affect Lehigh Valley workers and families and offered specific policies to counter Chinese aggression.

These ideas are shaped by two decades of service in military intelligence and many years of study on the issue. I’m also influenced by my travel to China and the former Soviet Union, where I witnessed the tragedy of communist policies first-hand. And, I have years of experience as a businessperson working in the technology sector, with a recent focus on cybersecurity.

I understand that most citizens of PA-07 probably don’t wake up in the morning and worry about China. We have families to care for, jobs to do, businesses to run. The top issues I hear about are runaway inflation, government overreach, and crime. People are worried about open borders, election integrity, and the erosion of their freedoms. They are still dealing with COVID-19. And they are fighting progressive efforts to indoctrinate their kids at school. These “kitchen table” issues involving safe communities, good jobs, and strong families are the priority for local voters, and that’s not going to change soon.

But China already is negatively impacting these issues right here in the Lehigh Valley. Chinese policies harm local workers by destroying their careers, stealing their innovations, and reducing their wages. They hurt local families by trafficking drugs, disrupting supply chains, and lying about COVID-19. And they endanger our freedoms by threatening our allies, attacking our information networks, and spreading “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics” around the world.

China’s behavior towards their own people says it all. They are unleashing genocide, forced abortions, and forced labor upon their citizens. If the Chinese Communist Party is successful in exporting its ideology outside mainland China, we can expect those terrors to follow along.

The good news is that China is not a superpower yet. We still have time to protect the peace and avoid Cold War II, or something even worse. But we must act now.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve identified 38 specific things that Americans can do to counter the Chinese threat. These are not campaign promises. No single Congressman can accomplish all these things by himself. And we cannot simply decouple our relationship with China in an instant. That would be like cutting out a cancer in a way that also kills the patient. We must be careful about our approach. But we also must be bold in our response.

For years, the experts said that if Americans invest in China and teach them economic freedom, eventually the country will achieve political freedom too. This was the prevailing view for decades.

The experts were wrong. Now we know that China used our investments and goodwill to double down on communism and to build the instruments of our destruction. The facts have changed.

Some of us have been warning about China for years, and many Americans have simply ignored the obvious signs of trouble. Maybe American businesspeople and politicians really thought they were doing the right thing by partnering with China. Perhaps they were just greedy. Let’s skip the blame game and offer them the benefit of the doubt. Regardless of past mistakes, we know the truth today. The Chinese Communist Party is the enemy of the American people. We must treat it as such.

Make no mistake. This is about preserving the peace, not belligerence. Unchecked, the Chinese Communist Party will build a juggernaut of power strong enough to invade our allies, upend our markets and spread its totalitarian ideology throughout the world. If that occurs, we all will experience how Chinese communism impacts the “kitchen table” issues we care about the most.

But if we act with uniform resolve, we can counter this threat, contain the spread, and reform China from within. A lot depends on whether American elites who got it wrong about China in the past have the courage to make it right in the future.

Thirty-Eight Ways to Counter the Chinese Communist Party

Reason #1 Why China is Not our Partner: Genocide

1. Call out human rights atrocities in China, those who perpetrate them, and those who enable them, even if they happen to be American businesspeople and politicians.
2. Impose new financial sanctions on individuals, institutions, and enablers of human rights atrocities in China.
3. Incentivize American corporations to repatriate assets from China.

Reason #2 Why China is Not our Partner: Forced Abortions

4. Oppose federal funding that directly or indirectly finances abortions in China.

Reason #3 Why China is Not our Partner: Slavery

5. Prohibit Chinese citizens or institutions that use or approve the use of forced labor from doing business with American companies or individuals.
6. Oppose issuing student, work, or travel visas for Chinese citizens with direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

Reason #4 Why China is Not our Partner: Taiwan

7. Authorize sufficient weapons and military assistance to Taiwan to counter the Chinese threat.
8. Recognize the Republic of China as independent nation- if the people of Taiwan so desire.
9. Use all appropriate tools of American power, including the U.S. military, to deter China and defend Taiwan against attack.
10. Modernize the U.S. military to focus on the specific threats from the Chinese Communist Party.

Reason #5 Why China is Not our Partner: Hong Kong

11. Speak out in support of the free people of Hong Kong and Macau.
12. Penalize Chinese Communist Party officials who confiscate American property, harm American citizens, or otherwise degrade the value of American interests in Hong Kong and Macau.
13. Assist American businesses with the repatriation of Hong Kong and Macau assets.
14. Revoke special privileges for Hong Kong and Macau entities proportional to China’s illegal usurpation of their rights to self-governance.

Reason #6 Why China is Not our Partner: Cyberattacks

15. Restrict the use of information applications that send or store U.S. data in China.
16. Assist U.S. institutions with additional cybersecurity protections to defend against Chinese hackers.
17. Hold the Chinese government accountable for attacks launched against U.S. interests from Chinese hackers.
18. Improve American offensive cyber capabilities.
19. Respond forcefully against specific Chinese information attacks.
20. Restrict China’s access to American hardware, software, and information technology, including access to operating systems, microchips, and wholesale components.

Reason #7 Why China is Not our Partner: Environmental Destruction

21. Stop incentivizing the purchase of Chinese-produced renewable energy materials.
22. Penalize Chinese products manufactured with dirty energy and lax environmental regulations.
23. Sanction companies involved with maritime destruction in the South China Sea and overfishing in disputed waters around the world.
24. Increase penalties for the illicit trade of environmentally sensitive plants and animal parts.
25. Require Chinese ports to increase protections against the export of invasive species.

Reason #8 Why China is Not our Partner: Stealing

26. Delist Chinese companies from American stock exchanges.
27. Restrict members and associates of the Chinese Communist Party from investing in American real estate, doing businesses with American companies, or endowing American academic institutions.
28. Prohibit Chinese citizens from working on sensitive research projects funded by the federal government.
29. Prohibit Chinese firms that steal American intellectual property from doing business with Americans.
30. Encourage American individuals to stop financing Chinese companies by creating a temporary capital gains tax holiday for selling certain Chinese securities.

Reason #9 Why China is Not our Partner: Covid-19

31. Conduct a full investigation into the origins of Covid-19.
32. Transfer the production of pharmaceuticals, personal protective equipment, medical devices, and healthcare technology to reliable sources outside of China.
33. Prohibit federal funding of Chinese research labs.
34. Allow Americans to file lawsuits against Chinese parties for damages related to Covid-19.

Reason #10 Why China is Not our Partner: Fentanyl

35. Prohibit Chinese companies that produce fentanyl components from doing business with Americans.
36. Prevent Mexican and Chinese individuals and institutions from using the international banking system to conduct drug transactions.
37. Help American companies better identify and counter drug related money laundering and shipping operations.
38. Control the southern border.

American Self-censorship – The New York Times (nytimes.com)