Red China Right Here, Right Now

Last week the House Committee on Homeland Security (CHS) released a new “China Threat Snapshot” assessment, detailing recent instances of Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-related espionage and acts of transnational repression in the United States. The assessment also documents recent CHS legislative efforts to address these national security threats

posed by the CCP.

“The Chinese Communist Party is not satisfied with destroying freedom and repressing its citizens within its own borders. Beijing has continually encroached upon American sovereignty to spy, intimidate, and harass not only defectors, but even American citizens,” Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green said. “To be clear, our adversary is not the Chinese people, but the threat that comes from the tyrannical regime that oppresses its own people, commits genocide, censors speech, and seeks to undermine representative government. It is important we remain clear-eyed about the threat the CCP poses to the security of the American people so we are prepared to counter its malign influence at every turn.”

Among the key points in the Snapshot:

*         Between 2000 and 2023 there have been 224 reported incidents of Red Chinese espionage directed at the United States.

*         About 80% of economic espionage prosecutions allege conduct that would benefit the Communist Chinese State, and there is at least some nexus to Red China in around 60% of all trade secret theft cases.

*         The FBI opens new cases to counter Communist Chinese intelligence operations roughly every 12 hours.

Chinese Communist Party-related threats to the homeland have grown rapidly in recent years. It is becoming increasingly evident that China’s oppressive arm reaches far beyond its own borders to actively oppose democracy, silence dissent, and spy on the United States.

From February 2021 to August 2024, there have been over 55 CCP-related espionage cases in 20 states including the transmission of sensitive military information, the stealing of trade secrets, the execution of transnational repression schemes, and the obstruction of justice.

Additionally, the Biden-Harris administration has overseen the largest influx of Chinese nationals illegally crossing the Southwest border than any previous administration. While the motivating factors driving Chinese nationals to cross the border are multifaceted, a thorough review is warranted due to the glaring security vulnerabilities at the border.  In FY24 alone, Border Patrol agents have recorded more than 36,000 apprehensions of Chinese nationals—more than all those recorded from FY07-20 combined. In March, the Committee released a “Startling Stats” fact sheet documenting the dramatic increase. 

The potential national security implications of this unprecedented influx are concerning, as a Chinese national in the U.S. illegally breached a military base in California and refused to leave on March 29.

Astonishingly, reports from last year revealed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ DHS had instructed Border Patrol agents to drastically reduce the number of vetting questions for Chinese nationals in order to more quickly process these aliens into the interior––potentially putting our homeland security at risk.

According to Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez in her transcribed interview with the Committee in September 2023, in order to interview and process Chinese nationals, her sector “had to go through a translation service. That translation service took about six to seven hours to interview a Chinese national. So that was very tasking on our end.”

“Secretary Mayorkas’ willful and systemic refusal to comply with the laws of the United States and his breach of the public trust continue to incentivize a record number of inadmissible aliens to flock to our borders, putting themselves in harm’s way and straining our Border Patrol agents and Custom and Border Protection officers on the frontlines of the crisis,” Chairman Green said last week.“ Among these encounters were more Chinese nationals, totaling more in the first six months of this fiscal year than in all of Fiscal Year 2023.

In the first half of FY24, 24,376 Communist Chinese nationals were encountered at the Southwest border, 24,214 of them apprehended illegally crossing the border. Encounters of Red Chinese nationals in March 2024 increased over 8,000 percent compared to March 2021, and have surpassed all of last fiscal year––just six months into FY24. March also marked a historic high for encounters along the busiest sector of the northern border, the Swanton Sector, which saw a nearly 50-percent increase compared to the previous March, and more than a 2,000-percent increase compared to March of FY21. More than 1,000 Communist Chinese nationals have crossed the northern border every month during the first five months of the fiscal year.

This massive influx of Red Chinese nationals, most of them fit young men of military age, constitutes a clear and present danger to the national security of United States. Go to https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/vicepresident/ to contact Border Czar Vice President Kamala Harris, tell her you demand that this massive influx of enemy nationals be halted immediately and the border be closed to all unauthorized Communist Chinese entrants.

• 2024 Election

• Biden administration

• China policy

• Taiwan

• fentanyl

• illegal immigration

• China threat snapshot

• China spying

• Chinese Communist Party

• American sovereignty

• Department of Homeland Security

• Alejandro Mayorkas