ChinaAid President warns of Chinese threat at committee launch

Bob Fu
(Photo: ChinaAid)

ChinaAid

(Washington, D.C.-March 25, 2019) ChinaAid President Bob Fu prepared remarks for the founding of the Committee on the Present Danger: China (CPDC) today, calling any “further appeasement” of China in light of their human rights abuse a possible “repeat [of] the mistakes that led to World War II.”

The Committee, which resembles a similar committee founded during the Cold War to combat the Soviet Union, exists to educate Americans on the threats the rule of China’s Communist Party poses to the outside world, given the human rights and religious freedom abuses evident in its own country. It launched today in Washington, D.C.

Fu’s remarks detailed these issues, and the full copy of his remarks are printed below.

ChinaAid exposes abuses in order to stand in solidarity with the persecuted and promote religious freedom, human rights, and rule of law. If you wish to partner with us in helping those persecuted by the Chinese government for their beliefs, please click here to make a charitable donation.  

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Statement by Dr. Bob Fu
on the Launch of the Committee on the Present Danger: China
25 March 2019

I am very honored to join with other distinguished leaders today as a founding member of CPDC. I believe this is a pivotal historic moment to recognize the comprehensive threat by the party-state Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that not only imperils the fundamental human rights and freedom of 1.4 billion Chinese in mainland China but represents “a whole-of-society threat” to America, as FBI Director Christopher Wray put it. Furthermore, the CCP has not only been posing a strategic danger to America interests alone, but it represents the single greatest danger to the survival of the Free World.

E.W. Priestap, the Assistant FBI Director for Counterintelligence has declared: “Make no mistake: The Chinese government is proposing itself as an alternative model for the world, one without a democratic system of government, and it is seeking to undermine the free and open rules-based order we helped establish following World War II.”[1]

On February 1, 2018, the CCP’s new regulation on religious affairs took effect. At least ten thousand churches were shut down the same day. Thousands of crosses were burnt or forcibly destroyed. A few months later, with CCP’s direct assistance, in the Kachin minority area in Burma, the exact same thing happened. Churches were ordered to remove crosses or shut down. All Christian humanitarian workers from China were either arrested and handed over to CCP security officers for detention or simply deported.

Friends, this is only a tiny example of the CCP’s threat to the world.

In 1997, my family were accepted as refugees by the United States due to severe religious persecution. At the time, the most hotly debated topic in Washington, D.C. was whether America should permanently delink the relationship between trade and human rights. In May, 2000, with heavy direct lobbying by the Clinton Administration, U.S. Congress passed legislation to grant Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China (PNTR). Then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called the vote “the right decision for America.” President Bill Clinton said that, “It will open new doors of trade for America and new hope for change in China.” He added that, if this were a game, the final score would be 100-0 in favor of the United States.[2]

The State Department reassured the American people that granting China PNTR and entry into the World Trade Organization would cost us NOTHING. It claimed that the positive change in China toward more reform and democratization would be inevitable. To date, this same premise has governed U.S.-China relations under both Republican and Democratic administrations until the current one.

Less than two decades after that hot debate and China’s successful entry into the WTO, many who voted for it have rightfully come to regret doing so. I think Secretary Albright and President Clinton should be experiencing “seller’s remorse.” After all, it should be regarded as one of the worst decisions ever taken by a U.S. administration and Congress. It might have opened some trade doors for some American business, but with 1.4 billion Chinese without free internet access, 1.5 million Uighur and other Muslim ministries in concentration camps in Xinjiang, increasing persecution against tens of millions of religious minorities, petitioners, democracy dissidents, human rights defenders and lawyers as well as netizens, and intensifying oppression of millions and millions of other Chinese people, freedom and democracy seems as far away as it did 30 years ago when the CCP ordered the brutal massacre of thousands of peaceful Chinese citizens in Tiananmen Square.

To the United States, instead of a 100:0 game victory as declared by President Clinton, we have lost big, both financially and in terms of other strategic interests.

I applaud the formation of this Committee with the mission not only of raising awareness about the strategic threat the CCP poses, but also to rally Republicans and Democrats, isolationists and internationalists alike to meet these challenges with the needed skills and policymaking initiatives. In the end, no matter where you stand in American politics or what kind of religion or non-religion you personally adhere to, we all agree: This is a catastrophe the United States can no longer ignore.

The CCP’s party-state should certainly not be a “strategic partner” with the United States as President Clinton called. Nor it is qualified to be called as “strategic competitor” as President Obama deemed. With its Cold War-like destructive “sharp power” penetrating throughout almost every corner of the world, the CCP has become a “strategic adversary” to the United States and all the civilized world.

The CCP’s totalitarian party-state has – particularly under the leadership of the current dictator, Xi Jinping – proved itself to be a thuggish regime. It’s time for the international community to recognize this realty.

It is futile to engage with such a regime with appeasement prompted by wishful thinking that somehow the CCP will obey the rules of the civilized world. Facts and history of the past 70 years have proven that. The CCP’s desire to dominate the world in accordance with its dictates rules has never been made so clear as it is under Xi.

The choice to the free world is clear: either repeat the mistakes that led to World War II by further appeasement, or to take resolute actions immediately before it is too late. China Aid and I look forward to working together with all of you to bring creative solutions to remove this biggest threat to our civilization and to also help our children and grandchildren live in a more peaceful world.

Bob Fu, PhD, is a member of Council for Foreign Relations(CFR) and the founder and President of China Aid.

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[1] https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/fbi-china-threatens-the-future-of-the-world.

[2] https://1997-2001.state.gov/regions/eap/fs-china_pntr-wto_000524.html


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ChinaAid President warns of Chinese threat at committee launch

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