The US Needs a China Strategy

Say it loud: Blacklist the 2,300 members of China's National Congress

Chinese leader Xi Jinping attends the opening of the first session of the 14th National People's Congress at The Great Hall of People in Beijing on March 5, 2023. China's annual political gathering, known as the Two Sessions, will convene leaders and lawmakers to set the regime's agenda for domestic economic and social development for the year. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

Commentary

As I detailed in a Feb. 8 American Spectator op-ed piece, the United States must take action toward an overarching China strategy. I offered five key reasons why Western countries should be “dedicated to bringing freedom from the influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to people in China and abroad.”

This strategy requires several major initiatives. Sanctioning all 2,300 members of China’s rubber-stamp legislature—the National People’s Congress (NPC)—would be a great start. Here’s why.

First, under Article 63 of China’s constitution, the NPC has the power to remove from office “the president and the vice president of the People’s Republic of China.” Having failed to do so, the NPC shares the responsibility for Beijing’s long train of abuses and usurpations as documented in The China Declaration.

Finding and freezing the U.S.-based assets of all 2,300 NPC members and their families likely would uncover a host of illegalities, for example, cash smuggled into the United States. NPC members suspected of such crimes could be prosecuted (in absentia, if necessary). Those convicted would have their funds seized. Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the CCP’s immoral actions finally would injure their co-conspirators. China’s suddenly impoverished members of Congress then would focus their rage on Xi.

This approach would build on Washington’s policy of sanctioning Russian oligarchs and President Vladimir Putin’s pals soon after the Kremlin invaded Ukraine. “The seizure of the Target Property is just the beginning of the reckoning that awaits those who would facilitate Putin’s atrocities,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui declared after he seized Viktor Vekselberg’s $90 million superyacht, the Tango, moored on the Spanish Mediterranean island of Mallorca.

Xi’s partners in crime in Beijing should suffer a similar reckoning for their role in the CCP’s atrocities. All 2,300 NPC members should fall under new rules similar to those that U.S. President Joe Biden triggered through his March 11, 2022 executive order, which targeted crooked Russians, namely “regime elites and business executives who are associates and facilitators of the” anti-Ukraine tyrants in Moscow.

Second, Chinese citizens will applaud this non-military initiative. They know or at least suspect that senior leaders in Beijing are corrupt, malicious, and deserve to lose their ill-gotten assets, which too often are stashed overseas. After all, normal Chinese are not wealthy enough to own condos in Irvine, California, or enroll their children at Stanford or MIT. While everyday Chinese are pleased with the higher standard of living they have enjoyed over the last 20 years, they resent the featherbedding of their sticky-fingered overlords.

Impoverishing Beijing’s thieves should enjoy widespread support among China’s citizens. Those who successfully protested against the CCP’s harsh zero-COVID policy did make Xi back down. The United States must keep the Chinese people on our side as we launch these strategic initiatives. At the right time, China’s men and women will eventually pressure China’s National Congress members and then move on to push Xi in the right direction.

Protesters shout slogans during a protest against Beijing's strict zero-COVID policy in Beijing on Nov. 28, 2022. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Third, the CCP will not take this sitting down. Among possible repercussions, Beijing will consider equivalent sanctions against U.S. officials. Fortunately, very few Americans own homes in China or have children on Chinese campuses. The CCP might ponder punishing Western companies. However, China’s economy is fragile and needs all the commerce it can get. Whatever Beijing’s response, all U.S. corporate executives in China are fully aware of the political and economic risks of being there. If this leads some to shift their assets and operations out of China, so much the better.

Ironically, U.S. companies that exit China would be following the paths of Chinese firms. “Many of these Chinese companies have set up factories in Vietnam, Thailand, Mexico, Indonesia, etc.,” said one China-based American CEO. “They are all selling the hell out of these new factory locations. Really leaning into it. I was surprised ... actually shocked.”

Fourth, doing nothing, or the same as before, means more of the same. Sanctioning Chinese companies that manufactured components of that spy balloon that invaded America’s sovereignty is appropriate. But, as the Chinese say, this is “zhì biǎo búzhì běn.” This fixes the symptom, not the root cause. The real problem is the CCP, not the companies that stitched the balloon together or dangled surveillance gear from its underside. A strategy of reacting to events after they occur will not produce a meaningful outcome.

Finally, remember Beijing’s transgressions as specified in The China Declaration and its corresponding strategy: Western countries should be “dedicated to bringing freedom from the influence of the CCP to people in China and abroad.”

It is only through multiple meaningful initiatives that this strategic mission can be achieved. It is time for Western governments to send a clear message to those who keep Xi in power and help him commit his atrocities.

Say it loud: “Blacklist the 2,300!”

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