Former top national security officials John Poindexter, Robert McFarlane, and Richard Levine explain in a Federalist column why the COVID-19 pandemic should prompt a change in U.S. national strategy involving China.
If China’s actions in the coronavirus catastrophe offer any window into this communist regime’s machinations, deceitfulness, and debasement of human life, it is that the threat they represent is unlike anything America has faced. …
… In confronting the present pandemic, fury must be displaced by actions that can alleviate the grave damage loosed on the world. A national strategy must peer into the future, to consider capabilities that must be attained, to meet threats that are unformed, but real.
It is logical to assume that after some initial point, Chinese political, military, and intelligence officials realized this outbreak of a new virus could be used to damage the economies of the West and thus facilitate Chinese hegemony. Given China’s history of pandemics, its political establishment must have had planning documents in place to serve the Communist Party of China’s interests, should such a scenario of a novel pandemic unfold. Manipulating data would be central to any such operational plan. …
… The present pandemic makes clear that America must adopt new initiatives to better protect against biological as well as chemical and nuclear threats, including electromagnetic pulse weapons and radiological agents. Heretofore, the U.S. government considered the consequences of a pandemic in abstract terms; we have lacked the institutional structures and vocabulary to institute needed actions, even when significant intelligence was at hand. …
… The problem is not the Chinese people, nor their proud heritage that stretches back thousands of years. It is communism. We must challenge China.
Carolina Journal Radio highlighted America’s complicated, adversarial relationship with China during a recent interview with Walter Lohman of the Heritage Foundation. He offered ideas for American policymakers to consider.
