by Marie Marino
The signs were all over Warwick: “Wake Up To The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) Threat.” Hosted by a group of Chinese-American immigrants, the event on 10/27 was a Q&A on the multiple ways in which the Chinese Communist Party has infiltrated American life. It was amusing to see a variety of Warwick faces among the over two hundred in attendance. There were people there whom I never would have guessed would have trekked out to Port Jervis on a dark October evening to see what I worried would be a bunch of foreign policy-wonks discussing matters of international intrigue. I was very wrong.
The evening offered deep insight into the activities of the CCP in the United States and a discussion of the unparalleled human suffering Communism has brought into the world over the last century. On the panel was Chris Chappell, host of China Uncensored, a YouTube news and commentary program which is both witty and unflinching in its reporting on the CCP. Also included was Kay Rubacek, author of “Who Are China’s Walking Dead?: A personal journey into the strange world of communist culture and officialdom.” Both sides of Kay’s family had escaped Communist regimes, which puts her in the unique position of being able to offer an educated and personal perspective on the ways in which totalitarian Communists operate against their own citizens.
A central theme of the evening was how the CCP targets American children, specifically through the use of the TikTok media application. When your child downloads and presses “Agree” to TikTok’s terms of service, their location is tracked and recorded and their keystrokes monitored, which allows for the collection of sensitive information, like credit card numbers and passwords. The evening’s panel emphasized that TikTok was created as a data collecting machine, first and foremost, for the Chinese government. By law, all companies in China must partner with president Xi Jinping’s government. Though China mandates that all companies must provide full access to their internal information, the company that built TikTok has close ties to high-ranking generals in the CCP.
Moreover, the TikTok algorithm channels dramatically different content to Chinese children as opposed to what appears on the screens of American kids. The panelists emphasized that China deliberately promotes content which is “toxic” for American youth. While China delivers educational and culturally positive videos and images for the Chinese consumer (e.g. science projects and works of art), our kids are fed a diet of mindless dance clips, scantily clad girls and idiotic stunts. Additionally, much of the transgender phenomena can be traced to the influence of TikTok. The message of the panelists was clear: Delete TikTok and prevent your kids from using it.
The panelists repeatedly asserted that the CCP has successfully infiltrated every facet of American society, from Hollywood to politics and academia. They contended that Chinese students who come to study in the United States are groomed to provide the CCP information ranging from American culture to specific details about their studies. Many of these students go on to become intellectual property spies, funneling the proprietary information of the American companies that eventually employ them to the CCP.
One of the more shocking aspects of the CCP’s infiltration is the discovery that the Chinese authorities operate secret police stations in certain areas throughout the United States, including one one in Chinatown, NYC. These foreign CCP police agents monitor and harass Chinese immigrants. Expatriates who criticize or are considered enemies of the CCP are threatened with consequences that target family members who are still living in China. Punitive measures, such as losing housing, travel privileges and basic economic participation, are exacted against people via China’s Social Credit system. Being assigned a “poor” social credit rating can plunge an entire family into economic ruin.
The panel addressed Taiwan’s importance to the United States because of its production of semiconductors. Taiwan is home to more than 90% of the manufacturing capacity for the world’s most advanced semiconductors, according to a 2021 Boston Consulting Group report. If China were to invade and take control of Taiwan, as many analysts indicate is likely, the CCP would have a near total stranglehold on the United States and its allies. Advanced semiconductors are extremely difficult to produce. China can only manufacture a few and their quality is subpar. China excels in making basic semiconductors which power our ovens and appliances, while advanced semiconductors power fighter jets and the next generation of computing, quantum computing. China’s acquisition of Taiwan would be a global game-changer.
The evening’s event closed with an affirmation that these actions are those of a political entity, one which is not reflective of the culture and character of the Chinese people. Moreover, we, the citizens of the United States, may be moving into a similar political space, where we can be blacklisted, silenced, and punished through our own emerging Social Credit system. Though our election cycle has now passed, we can return our focus to what is going on in our homes and what is in our children’s hands, by deleting TikTok and teaching them about the horrors Communism has caused throughout the world.
