When You Lie Down With Dogs, You Get Up With Fleas

Chinese Communist Party flag displayed displayed at the Beijing Exhibition Center on Oct. 10, 2017. (Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images)

Commentary

“For as they that write of poisons, and of creatures naturally disposed to the ruin of man, do as well mention the flea as the viper, because the flea, though he kill none, he does all the harm he can.”

So wrote John Donne four centuries ago in “Meditation XII.” Not until 1898 did Paul-Louis Simond discover that fleas did, in fact, kill, spreading the plague after biting infected rats. Later, scientists determined that fleas carried bubonic plague from human to human as well.

Which brings us, metaphorically speaking, to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

In his 2024 book “Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans” and in his recent interview with “American Thought Leaders” host Jan Jekielek, investigative reporter Peter Schweizer justifies my metaphor comparing the CCP to John Donne’s flea.

The CCP’s buying up of U.S. farmland, its decades-long theft of U.S. technology, its manipulation of our youth via TikTok, its support for radical groups in the United States: All these and more are the bites and pricks delivered by the CCP’s “unrestricted warfare,” which aims to do all the harm it can.

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And like the flea, the CCP also brings plague and death. The COVID-19 pandemic came directly from China, from which we have received neither an apology nor any full explanation for the disaster that sent the world into a tailspin. The CCP, again as noted in detail by Mr. Schweizer, also has its hand in every part of the fentanyl drug cartel operation on our southern border. Often disguised as prescription drugs, fentanyl now kills up to 100,000 Americans every year.

In his interview, Mr. Schweizer reveals yet another form of the CCP plague currently undermining the United States, namely the CCP backing of pro-Palestinian protests across the nation. Extremist groups such as Freedom Road Socialist Organization and Party for Socialism and Liberation receive funding and direction from the CCP, according to Mr. Schweizer.

So why do the powerful turn a blind eye to the flea bites and plagues inflicted on the United States by the CCP? In particular, why aren’t President Joe Biden, Congress, and our nation’s security agencies sounding the tocsin loud and clear, and bringing a halt to these assaults on U.S. national sovereignty?

Two words answer that question: money and greed.

As “Blood Money” reveals, some of our politicians, our corporations, Big Tech, and major investors have put profit above patriotism.

In another recent book, the 2023 “When China Attacks: A Warning to America,” retired Marine Col. Grant Newsham addresses many of these same issues, but with added emphasis on the growing power of the Chinese military, the precarious position of Taiwan versus the CCP, and what this means for the United States and its allies in the Pacific. In his concluding remarks, Mr. Newsham calls on businesses, universities, and the federal government to stop supporting China, both financially and in other ways, while building a stronger military and economy here at home. He points out as well the many problems within China itself: the low incomes, for example, the CCP’s corruption, and the fear-bred repression of its own people.

“We tend to look at the People’s Republic of China as ten feet tall,” he writes. “They aren’t ten feet tall. We’ve just been on our knees.”

And we ordinary Americans can do our bit to pull our country to its feet.

All too many Americans are oblivious to the CCP threat to liberty and our way of life or are so distracted by the daily news that they’ve paid little heed to this danger. We can help educate them, directing them to sources such as Mr. Schweizer’s interview or giving them copies of “When China Attacks” and “Blood Money.” We can also ask our libraries to stock both books.

We can remove ourselves and our children from TikTok and recommend that other family members and friends do the same. We can contact our legislators and encourage them to address the CCP’s unrestricted warfare on our country. A growing concern about this danger already exists among members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. Letters and emails from constituents can help keep them focused on this threat.

Finally, we should strive to remember who we are and to recover our sense of American principles. The United States needs to stand in sharp contrast to the tyranny that is the CCP.

Mr. Newsham dedicates his book “to those who were right about the Chinese Communist Party and who tried to warn us.”

We’ve been warned. It’s time to clean house and get rid of the CCP fleas.

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