Should We Kick Chinese Communist Party Members Out of the US?

The Trump administration may ban all members of the CCP and their families from the country

Members of a Chinese honour guard march in formation near the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)

Commentary

With U.S.-China relations at their lowest point in decades, some are questioning the wisdom of a potential ban by President Trump against all 90 million members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and their families from entering or remaining in the country.

The proposal is not yet official or even completely drafted, but the gist of it is that members of the CCP will not be allowed into the country. Additionally, those Party members and their family members who live, work or attend school in the United States would be expelled.

A New Cold War—or Just the Recognition of It?

Needless to say, it would certainly drive the United States and China further apart than they already are. Some also predict that it would trigger a cold war between the two nations.

Maybe so. On the other hand, it rather seems like a fait accompli, does it not?

In fact, U.S. policy makers have announced a clear shift from cooperation with China to one of confronting China on all fronts. The United States no longer views China as a global partner or even as a competitor or rival.

As a consequence, China, under the power of the CCP, is now regarded—correctly, I might add—as the primary adversary against freedom, democracy, and the liberal order that the United States faces in the world.

That’s the proper context in which to view the proposed ban on CCP from the United States.

Is such a proposal a good idea?

The Upside of the Ban

Assuming that such an edict (if it ever becomes law) survived all the media protests and sob stories of people being deported, there would be some clear upside to it.

For one, we know that the CCP and the Party leadership is steadfast in their aim to destroy the United States by any and all means necessary. The CCP virus (novel coronavirus) that the Party launched upon the world should disabuse anyone of any doubt on that score.

Secondly, we know that members of the Party are legally bound to serve the CCP. Technological and IP theft are therefore obligatory. Again, there’s no credible argument against this.

Therefore, it follows that the CCP is in the United States for nefarious purposes, namely to steal our ideas, undermine our universities and think tanks with pro-China dogma, as well as change the attitudes of the younger generations toward China through control of key cultural channels such as film and the news media.

The CCP is also quite adept at buying our politicians, co-opting our scientists, filching our cyber and military secrets, corrupting out technology leaders such as Apple, Microsoft, Twitter and the like, and of course, defrauding our capital markets.

On Twitter, for example, 23,000 accounts were suspended for spreading CCP propaganda against Hong Kong and disinformation on the CCP virus. A year earlier, Twitter suspended over 150,000 CCP accounts for anti-American, pro-China tweets.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

For the past four decades, exploiting the open societies of the West, and in particular, the United States, has been the CCP’s consistent modus operandi. And they’ve been so successful at it that they are now a threat to the entire world.

Even the European Union (EU) gets it. If you didn’t realize all of this, well, you do now.

How Much Would It Help?

Would banning the CCP from the United States eradicate much or all of that activity?

Certainly not all of it. But it may stop some or even much of it.

Several factors may impact its effectiveness.

For one, it would only exist in a Trump administration. It’s difficult to imagine a Biden-Harris administration allowing such a policy to remain in place.

Secondly, it remains to be seen how the ban might be enforced and what the penalties might be for violating it. More than likely, the results would be a mixed bag of legal challenges, high profile exits, celebrated discoveries of China’s malfeasance, and xenophobia charges played repeatedly in the mainstream media.

But there would be very important benefits.

First, it would show the world, and most importantly, our allies in Europe and elsewhere how serious we take the CCP’s threat to the world. It may well prompt others to do the same.

Secondly, in that vein, it could well be the first step in a U.S. attempt to formulate a new, multilateral containment policy against China. The CCP, after all, has lost all credibility with the developed nations.

No one believes that the CCP is a harmless or even neutral player in the world.

Third, it may make life for the CCP in China more difficult. The CCP already spends more money protecting itself from the people over which it rules, than its entire external defense budget.

But importantly, it’s not as if the United States is against 1.4 billion Chinese, as the CCP claims. Rather, it is only against the cruel leadership of the CCP that oppresses its own and seeks to do the same to the rest of the world.

CCP Reaction

The CCP’s reaction to such a proposed ban would likely be multi-faceted.

For instance, would they expel American businesses and students?

Probably. Overnight, American businesses would be hustling for new offshore factory locations, or may even move all operations stateside.

Would the CCP pullback from its aggression against Hong Kong and threats against Taiwan?

Not likely. In fact, both would probably continue if not increase in intensity.

But many other reactions and responses from the CCP would certainly take place.

For instance, would Beijing potentially seek to de-legitimize the dollar as a global reserve currency by dumping its U.S. Treasury bond holdings?

Very possibly.

Would the CCP seek to isolate the United States on the world stage, even as they expand their efforts to undermine the free nations of the world?

Certainly.

Could the CCP leadership decide to launch a new strain of coronavirus on the world?

That’s possible as well.

Given all these possible responses, should the United States ban the CCP from America?

Absolutely.

James R. Gorrie is the author of “The China Crisis” (Wiley, 2013) and writes on his blog, TheBananaRepublican.com. He is based in Southern California.

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