By H. R. McMaster
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Note: The following is an excerpt from the book Battlegrounds:
The Fight to Defend the Free World by H. R. McMaster. Copyright © 2020 by H.
R. McMaster. To be published on September 22, 2020 by Harper, an imprint of
HarperCollins Publishers.
The CCP views freedom of expression as a weakness to be
suppressed at home and exploited abroad. The free exchange of information and
ideas, however, may be the greatest competitive advantage of our societies. We
have to defend against Chinese agencies that coordinate influence operations
abroad — such as the Ministry of State Security, the United Front Work
Department, and the Chinese Students and Scholars Association — but we should
also try to maximize positive interactions and experiences with the Chinese
people. Those who visit and interact with citizens of free countries are most
likely to go home and question the party’s policies, especially those that
stifle freedom of expression. So, the people who direct academic exchanges or
are responsible for Chinese student experiences should ensure that those
students enjoy the same freedom of thought and expression as other students.
That means adopting a zero-tolerance attitude for CCP agents who monitor and
intimidate students and their families back home.
Foreign students at universities abroad, regardless of
their country of origin, should gain an appreciation for the host nation’s
history and form of governance. When universities and other hosting bodies
protect the freedoms that these students should enjoy, it serves to counter the
propaganda and censorship to which the students are subjected in their home
country. Perhaps most important, Chinese and other foreign students should be
fully integrated into student bodies, to ensure they have the most positive
academic and social experience.
The protection of students’ ability to express themselves
freely should extend to expatriate communities. The U.S. and other free nations
should view their Chinese expatriate communities as a strength. Chinese abroad,
if protected from the meddling and espionage of the CCP, are capable of making
their own judgments about the party’s activities. As the party becomes more
aggressive in controlling its population to maintain its exclusive grip on
power, Chinese expatriates may further appreciate the benefits of living in
societies that permit freedom of expression. It is appropriate, for example,
for free and open societies not only to disabuse their Chinese visitors of the
party’s anti-Western propaganda, but also to create safe environments for
Chinese expatriates to question the CCP’s policies and actions. Investigations
and expulsions of Ministry of State Security and other agents should be
oriented toward protecting not only the targeted country, but also the Chinese
expatriates within it.
Expatriates also have the potential to counter the party’s
predatory actions under Made in China 2025, One Belt One Road, and
Military-Civilian Fusion. As the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security
concluded in November 2018, the United States should not only block efforts to
recruit Chinese expatriates for espionage, but also provide “more incentives
for highly educated Chinese talents to participate in the U.S. economy.”
Freedom of expression and freedom of the press also play
a key role in promoting good governance to inoculate countries from bad deals
under One Belt One Road (OBOR). Uganda provides an example of how the
combination of law enforcement and investigative journalism countered China’s
predatory economic behavior to U.S. advantage. In 2015, the Ugandan government
agreed to borrow $1.9 billion from a Chinese bank to build two dams. An
investigation in 2018 revealed shoddy construction in the unfinished dams,
later that year, a New York court convicted a Chinese energy company
representative of paying bribes to African officials. Ugandan leaders then
asked a U.S. consortium to bid on a new oil refinery project, a bid it won.
Uganda demonstrates the potential associated with freedom of the press enabling
public accountability under the rule of law. Over time, the combination of
exposing China as an untrustworthy partner and providing alternatives to its
predatory behavior will give the CCP incentives to alter its behavior.
As with freedom of expression, the CCP views tolerance of
diversity as a threat. It is in this area that the United States and other
countries might draw a strong contrast. Although some might see expanded
immigration from an authoritarian state as a danger, I believe the United
States and other free and open societies should consider issuing more visas and
providing paths to citizenship for more Chinese, especially those who have been
oppressed at home. Immigrants who have experienced an authoritarian system are
often most committed to and appreciative of democratic principles,
institutions, and processes. They also make tremendous contributions to our
economy. Should the CCP intensify the coercion of its own people in Hong Kong
and elsewhere as it did in Xinjiang or engage in brutality reminiscent of the
Tiananmen Square Massacre, the United States and other nations should consider
offering visas or granting refugee status to those able to escape the
repression. Following the bloody crackdown in Tiananmen Square, President
George H. W. Bush issued an executive order that granted Chinese students in
the United States the right to stay and work. In the following decade, more
than three quarters of the highly educated mainland Chinese students stayed
after graduation. Many Chinese Americans who remained in the United States
after Tiananmen to become U.S. citizens were at the forefront of innovation in
Silicon Valley. The Chinese diaspora could, through its familial connections,
provide a significant counter to the CCP’s propaganda and disinformation.
No comments:
Post a Comment