China is ‘principal threat’ to U.S., expert says

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China is ‘principal threat’ to U.S., expert says
Steven Mosher speaks on the dangers of China. Collegian | Kalli Dalrymple

The Chinese Communist Party is the greatest threat America has ever faced, according to Steven Mosher, a scholar on China and a social scientist. 

Mosher’s speech, which explored China as a key issue in the upcoming presidential election, was part of the Center for Constructive Alternatives conference on American foreign policy on Tuesday, Sept. 21. 

The danger China poses to the United States has become increasingly apparent, Mosher said, making China a major issue on the ballot this November.  

“China is the principal threat to the U.S.-led world order and to democracy in the United States, interfering with our election in a way that Vladimir Putin could only dream of having done,” Mosher said.

For evidence, Mosher pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic, which he said has become intensely politicized.  

 “This is a virus that was created in a Chinese lab overseen by the People’s Liberation Army, and then deliberately released upon the world,” Mosher said. 

Mosher also argued that China poses a significant military threat to the United States, citing a Pentagon report claiming that over the last two decades, China has marshaled the resources, technology, and political will to modernize its military, growing both its navy and its nuclear capabilities.

“The FBI estimates that China steals $600 billion a year in intellectual property from the United States,” Mosher said. 

Mosher shared how in response to the Pentagon report, a Chinese spokesman said America is the real destroyer of world peace and China’s military buildup should not threaten or worry any country. 

“Well, tell that to Taiwan,” Mosher said.

China’s increased aggression against India, Japan, Taiwan, and the Russian border are also signs of a trend toward militantism, Mosher said. 

Hillsdale College Sophomore Kelsey Powell, who spent a year studying in Taiwan, said Mosher’s speech aligned with what she had seen while studying abroad.

Mosher pointed to China’s habit of online trolling and infiltrating foreign media outlets with Chinese propaganda as another sign of China’s threat to the election. 

“Both Attorney General William Barr and National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien have recently remarked that it is not Russia, but China, that has taken the most active role in interfering in the U.S election,” Mosher said.

Susannah Green, a junior, agreed that Chinese trolls and media infiltration is an issue. 

“Most people our age these days get their political information on social media and Twitter,” she said of the Communist Party’s influence on popular culture and information.

The most direct way China could swing the election, however, is through the candidates themselves, particularly on economic issues, according to Mosher. Mosher asserted that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has barely acknowledged China as a significant competitor and has a history of supporting trade deals that undermine U.S. trade interests while promoting Chinese economic growth. President Donald Trump, on the other hand, has a clear understanding of the threat China poses to the United States’ economy, national security, and world interests. 

“There is no win-win scenario between democratic America and communist china, there are only temporary truces. The new cold war between China and the United states is a zero-sum game which will only be solved when one system triumphs over the other,” Mosher said.