China’s new war: America’s freedom depends on confronting the threat

The world is more dangerous today than at any time in my lifetime. America is at war — not a hot war like World War II or a cold war like the one with the Soviet Union but a New War that includes so much more than historical kinetic warfare or cold war rhetoric. This New War is existential and will determine whether the free world will, in fact, remain free. It could very well be won without a shot ever being fired.

As a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, I witnessed firsthand how the People’s Republic of China is becoming more and more aggressive in fighting this New War.

The PRC wants to become the global hegemon by 2049, its centenary, and displace the U.S.-led world order that has existed since the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944.

As chairman of the seapower subcommittee, I participated in U.S. Navy Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOP) in the South China Sea and met with PRC leaders such as President Li Keqiang, Vice Premier Liu He, and many other top CCP officials, including People's Liberation Army leadership. I also traveled extensively in the region, meeting with other leaders in Japan, India, Australia, the Philippines, Singapore, and South Korea and hearing their concerns about the CCP.

Through all my activity in China and the region, one thing became painfully clear: The CCP firmly believes its rightful destiny is to reclaim its historical position as the hegemon of the world order — and convert the world to Marxism.

The CCP was formed in 1921, and the PRC came into being in 1949 after its civil war. It is still trying to avenge its “Century of Humiliation” that it believes was caused by “Western imperialists” who succeeded in the Opium Wars.

Mao Zedong established Marxism and ruled until his death in 1976 with disastrous results. His “Great Leap Forward” with its famine and his “Cultural Revolution” caused the deaths of between 30 million and 45 million Chinese. The evidence that Marxism is a failed ideology is also overwhelming in places such as the Soviet Union, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, and North Korea.

Winston Churchill once said, “The problem with capitalism is that it is the imperfect allocation of prosperity. The problem with socialism is that it is the perfect allocation of misery.” A friend of mine in Moscow, when asked about life there, said, “We’re all equally poor.” Enough said!

Today, Xi Jinping is the general secretary of the CCP, the chairman of the PRC, and the chairman of the Central Military Commission — for life. This is unprecedented and makes him a modern-day emperor.

He has reinforced China’s neo-Marxism that combines traditional principles with modern market-driven strategies. State-owned enterprises are emphasized, and the economy is clearly state-controlled. The paradox is that wealth generation and private enterprise within socialist principles are allowed, but this has fostered widespread corruption and dramatic income disparity. The conflict between wealth generation and socialist egalitarianism continues to be a challenge for this model.

In Xi's own words, the PRC is firmly committed to Marxism and to becoming the leader of a new world order.

In 2018, on the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth, Xi declared, “Marxism is the ultimate guiding thought of our party and our state. It is a powerful thought weapon for … CHANGING THE WORLD. We will unceasingly spread modern Chinese Marxism.” He speaks often about constructing a “community of common destiny for all mankind.” He equates this slogan to a beautiful collectivized world that is not far off.

Ian Easton, in his book The Final Struggle, quotes Xi’s textbook, The Fundamentals of Xi Jinping Thought: “The global economy should be controlled by the State … and China’s mission will mean the destruction of free market capitalism.”

In The Hundred-Year Marathon, Michael Pillsbury outlines China’s long-term strategy to displace the United States as the world’s leading superpower. He warns that “the United States has been the target of a deliberate and systematic plan by China to weaken and ultimately surpass us.”

Our fight is not with the people of China but with the CCP. Only 6% of the population are members of the CCP. How do the other 94% feel about living in an authoritarian state? Well, in 1989, at Tiananmen Square, they let the world know exactly how they felt: They wanted freedom!

Today, with China’s social credit score system, millions of public cameras, and facial recognition software, another Tiananmen seems unlikely. Who would have believed a few years ago that one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in the world, who started Alibaba, would go missing mysteriously for three months after displeasing the CCP? This is the future the CCP plans for the rest of the world.

In 1978, Deng Xiaoping said, “To get rich is glorious,” and he unleashed a generation of state-supported entrepreneurs who with Western capital, stolen technology, cheap and slave labor, unfettered market access in the West, state dumping subsidies, safe shipping lanes (thanks to the U.S. Navy), and many other artificial benefits created dramatic economic growth.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and its allies got it wrong. Until then-President Donald Trump stood up to China on trade, the U.S. had pursued a strategy of engagement, allowing China into the World Trade Organization, giving it "most favored nation" status, giving it total access to our consumer markets, providing capital, and turning a blind eye to much of its bad behavior. The hope was that as China grew, it would liberalize and join other countries to pursue peace and prosperity. It is now clear, however, what its true intentions have been all along: It wants to be the new hegemon, and it has to destroy capitalism and democracy to achieve that.

While China's intentions are clear, its methods are less clear since this New War encompasses every facet of human endeavor. Sun Tzu: “The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy so that he cannot fathom our real intent.”

In War Without Rules, retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert Spalding provides a detailed analysis of the book Unrestricted Warfare, written by two PLA colonels in 1998. These colonels laid out a detailed strategy that the CCP is executing today. In this strategy, China’s effort to become the new hegemon includes all aspects of human life, not just military conflict. This is the New War China has been executing for the past 25 years. “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting,” according to Sun Tzu.

This means that in this New War, every part of Chinese life, military and civilian, is aligned with this CCP goal. Understanding this, one can see this strategy come to life in all of China’s actions over the past few decades.

China has moved from being a growing economic competitor to becoming a very aggressive adversary.  The U.S. poured billions into its economy, educated hundreds of thousands of its students, ignored most of its aggressive behavior, and only just now is awakening to the fact that it really does want to do us harm. Imagine, in 1939, having our supply chain dominated by the Axis powers.

Made in China 2025, published in 2015, told the world exactly what China was going to do. In Chinese culture, heavily influenced by Sun Tzu and Confucius, the Chinese never disclose their plans unless and until they believe the adversary has neither the ability nor the will to stop them.

Having lived in Singapore and Hong Kong, as well as Europe, and having worked in Asia for much of my business career, I witnessed how uncontrolled globalization became a tool for China in this New War.  The West treated China as a developing country, and China devastated entire manufacturing industries in the U.S. and Europe.

Two strategic industries have been especially affected. This year, China will build more than half of the world’s commercial ships, while the U.S. will build less than 1%. According to U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, China’s shipbuilding capacity is now 200 times that of the U.S.

Except for one mining and processing company, all U.S. rare earth element processing has moved overseas, to China primarily. That’s right: We mine it here, ship it to China, they process it, ship it back — and we put it into our most classified advanced weaponry. Huh? Oh, and we don’t even have a strategic reserve of rare earth elements.

The irony of ironies: The Bible I was given by the Senate when I was sworn in, you got it printed in China — a country where your social credit score would be destroyed if you owned it.

Today, the Belt and Road Initiative makes it obvious China is establishing the global infrastructure to dominate economically and militarily.

As part of this strategy, the PRC has been making proprietary loans in port developments in strategic locations around the world. It has already foreclosed on three of these in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Cambodia and is building military naval bases there to add to its port at Djibouti. China has also made dozens of these port loans in Africa and South America including Panama. So much for the Monroe Doctrine!

After Xi promised the world China would not militarize its reclamations in the South China Sea, it went all out to build military bases there. On one FONOP, I flew in a Navy jet directly over Fiery Cross Reef, the large military base built on reclaimed land, and saw missile silos open as we flew directly overhead at 1,000 feet. We saw dozens of PLAN ships and supply ships at Mischief Reef, and most dramatically, we saw PLAN coast guard ships some 1,000 kilometers from the Chinese mainland, emphasizing its desire to call the South China Sea part of China.

As damaging as China’s cyber warfare has been already, it is intensifying at an alarming rate. FBI Director Christopher Wray said recently, “The PRC’s targeting of our critical infrastructure is both broad and unrelenting. It’s using the immense size of its hacking effort to give itself the ability to physically wreak havoc on our critical infrastructure at a time of its choosing.”

We again saw China's true colors during the coronavirus pandemic. When the virus was discovered in Wuhan, it denied it came from its lab and blocked World Health Organization efforts to investigate. Most telling, though, was when it blocked any domestic travel but for weeks allowed travel out of Wuhan to international destinations and the virus was exported to the rest of the world. Then, it threatened to halt shipments of personal protection equipment and pharmaceuticals to the U.S. because it was asking too many questions.

China continues to laugh at U.S. attempts to partner with it on climate change. In 2023, China built 95% of the world’s new coal-fired power plants and remains the world’s largest polluter.

Its human rights record is, of course, abysmal, but what it is doing in southwestern China is unconscionable. More than a million Uyghurs are being held in concentration camps.

The CCP has infiltrated the U.S. education system and media to affect the way Americans think and behave dramatically. Movie studios must oblige CCP censors if they hope to distribute any production in China. The CCP has also used U.S. social media to indoctrinate generations of Americans with its propaganda.

The CCP is also complicit in the illegal smuggling of fentanyl into the U.S. through Mexico. Fentanyl deaths have exploded in the U.S. increasing from 5,000 in 2014 to more than 70,000 in 2022. More young people died in America in one year from fentanyl than died in 20 years in the Vietnam War.  Fentanyl is definitely a CCP weapon in this New War.

The CCP has been rapidly building its military capability as well, particularly its nuclear, cyber, and naval strength. It now boasts a bigger navy with longer-range missiles than the U.S., and it has a huge naval militia. The bottom line is that it is building a naval fleet and military ports to project power around the world, not just protect its home waters.

China has integrated its business and military efforts in this New War. Chinese smart cranes operate in most U.S. ports. A Chinese company operates Australian prisons. China operates ports at both ends of the Panama Canal as well as in Mexico. China controls the Philippines's power grid. A Chinese company owns the largest U.S. pork producer. These are by no means exhaustive but are simple examples of how China is perpetrating its New War.

To protect ourselves, Americans first have to realize the CCP actually is at war with us.

The combined economic and military strength of democratic capitalist countries is multiple times greater than authoritarian countries. To defend freedom, these free countries need to unite and create an allied front, not unlike World War II. Yes, this is that serious, and time has run out.

The most important thing the U.S. can do immediately is mobilize its allies and reassure them of its friendship and commitment to mutual survival. “America First” never meant “America Alone.” The free world must act now and not get distracted by events elsewhere.

With its allies, the U.S. needs to thwart China’s efforts to dominate the United Nations, WTO, and WHO. It also needs to strengthen the Quad and its relationship with ASEAN.

The U.S. will have to deal with its debt crisis. This will be difficult since only a third of its total annual expenditures are discretionary. Two-thirds are mandatory and include Social Security and Medicare. Its annual budget shortfall is greater than all discretionary expenditures.

The U.S. should demand total trade reciprocity, and China should float its currency. Decoupling U.S. supply chains from China, particularly for strategic items, should be a top priority. Having China build our commercial ships and process our rare earth elements is unacceptable.

This will be painful, but China is using our consumer dollars against us. We have to jump-start domestic manufacturing and accelerate workforce development.

Talent is a key weapon in this New War. The U.S. should limit the CCP’s unfettered access to the U.S. education system and recruit talent from nonauthoritarian countries. Too many Chinese hackers were educated on scholarship in our best universities. Our borders need to be secured, and we need to implement a merit-based immigration system like those in Canada and Australia.

To compete, more U.S. scientists and engineers must be produced. The U.S. graduates about 70,000 engineers each year, while India produces 350,000 and China 600,000.

America’s investment in technology research needs to increase dramatically to remain dominant in key areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and chip development.

U.S. energy independence should be reestablished by reopening ANWR and the Keystone Pipeline.  Energy is one of our most potent weapons geopolitically. We should withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, as it commits the U.S. to fund it primarily while giving China a free pass.

Maybe our best weapon in this New War is our economic and financial strength. The dollar is the world’s reserve currency, and U.S. sanctions actually work. China needs access to foreign direct investment, and united free countries should restrict capital flows into China and stop investments that benefit China’s New War effort. China’s compliance with WTO rules and Western banking transparency rules should be a prerequisite to doing business with any free country.

All levers should be pulled to get China to stop all illegal fentanyl manufacturing and shipment. In a totalitarian state, the Chinese could absolutely stop this immediately if they wanted. Imagine what we would do if China were killing 70,000 Americans each year with cruise missiles!

Future U.S. military spending must be focused on this new nature of conflict in which every area of our lives is involved. China has integrated its civilian and military endeavors to fight this New War, and the U.S. will have to do similarly. A new global strategy concerning how the U.S. deploys its military assets needs to be instituted.

New technology needs to be developed with this New War in mind. We may be in a world now where a $50,000 missile could take out a $20 billion carrier. We also have to guard against overspending and falling into the Reagan/Soviet trap.

With its allies, the U.S. needs to continue to fight for human rights and put pressure on China from all international organizations. China's continued malfeasance concerning pollution can no longer be ignored. Continuing to focus on cheap polluting energy helps China put more capital into its New War effort.

Free countries should coordinate a global public relations effort to combat CCP propaganda. With today’s technology, we can get truth to the people inside the PRC and educate the world about China’s true intentions and increasing malfeasance.

Democratic countries have to decide what they will do to protect democracy in Taiwan. Our “strategic ambiguity” policy needs to be addressed with allies and clarified. Going the way of Hong Kong, where China lied about “one country, two systems” and now extradites residents to mainland China at will, should be unacceptable.

It’s incredible that in the first presidential debate in June, not one question about China was asked — not one question about the most serious existential threat America has faced since 1789.

Ronald Reagan reminded us that freedom is not free. He said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. It must be fought for, protected, and passed on.”

Americans have to decide if we are going to fight for our freedom or not. If we are, then we have to buckle our chinstraps and get to work. Time has indeed run out.

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To be successful in this New War, both political parties will have to align on this issue to achieve a strategic approach and avoid changing directions every four years. This cannot become a political issue. It is a survival issue.

Americans are sometimes slow to recognize they are in a crisis, but once they do, they are the absolute best at dealing with one. Americans simply must do what will be required to defend themselves and their way of life and win this New War. Every prior generation of Americans would expect nothing less.

David Perdue served as a senator from Georgia from 2015 to 2021. He was a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.