The Chinese Communist Party Has Broadly Infiltrated Influential US Institutions

A sign opposing a corn mill in Grand Forks, N.D., stands near 370 acres recently annexed by the city for the project. Many residents don't want the project in the city because the owner has reputed ties to the Chinese Communist Party through its company chairman. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

Commentary

During the Cold War, the U.S. government, big businesses, and ordinary American citizens did everything they could to prevent Soviet infiltration and espionage. To be fair, sometimes this resulted in unfounded accusations—e.g., the McCarthy hearings.

However, for the most part, the sense of heightened alert and suspicion of the Soviet communist menace was well founded.

Today, the United States faces a new communist threat, which is arguably much more dangerous than that posed by the Soviet Union or its satellite states. It goes by the name of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and believe it or not, this new, and potentially more ominous, enemy has already put down deep roots within the United States.

Consider:

The CCP has heavily infiltrated the U.S. education system, from higher education to K–12 classrooms.

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Since 2004, the CCP has funded more than 100 “Confucius Institutes” on prominent U.S. college campuses. According to the U.S. Department of State, Confucius Institutes “push out skewed Chinese language and cultural training for U.S. students as part of Beijing’s multifaceted propaganda efforts.” That’s why the State Department recently labeled them “a foreign mission of the People’s Republic of China.”

Perhaps even more disconcerting, the CCP also operates “Confucius Classrooms” in scores of U.S. K–12 schools. As the State Department notes, as of 2020, “there are around 500 Confucius Classrooms based on K–12 campuses.”

The CCP has also infiltrated social media, primarily via the hugely popular app TikTok. Like all companies in China, ByteDance—the owner of TikTok—is subservient to the CCP and must do its bidding. In 2020, the Department of Justice declared TikTok a “mouthpiece” for the CCP and revealed that its CEO was “committed to promoting” the CCP’s agenda.

Aside from indoctrinating our youth in our public schools and hooking vast swaths of the U.S. population on an app that feeds them nonstop stupid videos (which is entirely different from the Chinese version of TikTok), the CCP has also gained a foothold in the United States by purchasing enormous amounts of farmland, some of which happens to be located near sensitive military installations.

For instance, in 2022, a Chinese company bought 300 acres of farmland located just 20 minutes from Grand Forks Air Force Base, which, as CNBC reported, is “home to some of the nation’s most sensitive military drone technology” and serves as “the backbone of all U.S. military communications across the globe,” according to a state senator. According to a 2021 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (pdf), China owns more than 384,000 acres of U.S. farmland. What’s more, this is increasing at an alarming rate.

Another threat that’s increasing at an alarming rate is the sheer number of young Chinese men who have illegally crossed the U.S.–Mexico border in recent years. As Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, recently stated, it’s “very likely” the CCP is sending countless “military personnel” to cross the border illegally.

Meanwhile, for more than two decades, numerous U.S. businesses have “sold out” the United States so they can do business in China.

“The greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality, is the counterintelligence and economic espionage threat from China,” FBI Director Christopher Wray has warned.

Worst of all, it seems more than likely that the CCP has been indirectly in business with Hunter Biden.

Since the end of the Cold War, high-ranking U.S. government officials, education administrators, CEOs, and a parade of “experts” have argued that the United States should engage with China, hoping that free-market capitalism and American values would eventually mold the People’s Republic of China in a more democratic and free direction.

Obviously, that hasn’t worked. In fact, China has become stronger than ever due to misguided “experts,” unscrupulous CEOs, foolish education administrators, and naive politicians.

During the Cold War, it would have been unfathomable to engage with the Soviet Union to the degree that the United States is now engaging with China. Back then, the free world, including the United States, was clear-eyed when it came to the threat of communist infiltration and domination.

As we embark on the next Cold War, we would be wise to learn the lessons from the past. Moreover, we must recognize that the CCP is the greatest threat we face, and it’s imperative that we end all CCP infiltration efforts before it’s too late.

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