“Hidden Hand”: a good reading on how how Xi Jinping’s China is trying to eat the world.
As a USA/EU citizen you must be informed about the stealth offensive that the Chinese Communist Party has been carrying out towards the rest of the world in recent years.
I want to be clear: this book shocked me!
It was supposed to be a quiet summer read on an international political theme, a book with a beautiful exaggerated cover artwork, with a cold war flavour maybe, but as I read it I realised that I was facing a serious and well-documented journalistic work. A sort of milestone-book for the next years.
To be clear the ENG title is: Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party Is Reshaping the World ISBN978–88–9325–835–7
Premise: China’s image of the average citizen
In Europe and the USA we tend to have hearsay knowledge of China: it’s known that since the early 00s many Chinese companies have gradually begun to copy successful products of Western companies. Through the news and word of mouth I hear of entrepreneurs who found stands of Chinese companies at fairs with copies of their products, in defiance of copyright and copyright regulations.
Once upon a time there was “made in China”…
On the other aspects, China remains a distant reality, imagined: the Kung-fu films, the Bruce Lee films (which actually were set in Hong Kong, an independent state, annexed before of times in violation of international agreements, Ed), we know only that the Chinese have a “censored” version of the internet, and it’s difficult for them to visit western websites. They live under a Communist Party, but since the Tiananmen Square protests things have been quiet…
We also know that along the “10s”, the Chinese manufacturing has become more and more central in producing components and chips, but also on assembling smartphones and computers for Western companies such as Apple, but the feeling is that everyone is looking at its garden and everyone is living serene…
The real China, 20s
Reading the book was a huge update on the knowledge of China and PCC’s approach to the world. We discover that behind the quiet panda facade there’s actually a full Cold War attitude: the PCC party under Xi Jinping justifies its power no longer with an internal narrative focused on economic successes — like in early 00's — nor on a nationalism-traditionalism — because the people could change government and still being Chinese, or rediscover pre-communist values as it was for the Falun Gong movement — but instead justifies its power with an anti-Western, anti-rest-of-the-world narrative that won’t lead to anything good in the coming decades.
The PCC party under Xi Jinping justifies its power with an anti-Western, anti-rest-of-the-world narrative that won’t lead to anything good in the coming decades.”
China’s offensive
Xi Jinping’s China is by no means as affable as the China of 10–15 years ago that we all remember: a central apparatus called “the United Front”, through departments called CCPNR, AFROC and OCAO, is in charge of controlling first of all the Chinese residing abroad, but also religious and cultural associations and Chinese students.
In short, Party agents infiltrate overseas Chinese associations to control emigrants.
But not only that — that’s the tradition — in recent years the CCP has been trying to infiltrate and influence the policies of countries around the world: first the less resistant developing countries, following the Maoist strategy of “surrounding cities with the countryside”. Cities needless to say, are the Western countries like USA and Europe, Canada and Australia. For this reason, China is investing heavily in Africa, buying land, dams and bringing several governments to its side.
The Chinese presence in Africa is not a missionary action: they are there to buy raw materials for chips, arable fields and votes for ratifications to the United Nations.
This may seem like normal administration in the world of inter-state relations, but once you understand — by reading the book thoroughly — how much the CCP offensive is branched, granular and planned, you realise that the CCP is trying to conquer the world without being spotted.
The CCP has invested in Western companies, financed cultural associations and universities, bought politicians and ports from Western countries, and this happened (almost) without the West noticing that.
China in the west
In the more advanced Western countries, the CCP acts with more discretion, and — always following a similar Zen approach like “from the periphery to the center” — it tries to influence and relate to local administrations: even individual small towns.
Where the national government — for example Australia — has banned the outsourcing of new 5G networks to Chinese consortia, the CCP has managed to find deals at the level of individual federal sub-states, bypassing the Australian central government. The State of Canberra indeed has 5G by Huawei.
Entrepreneurs are also a front of attack: following a strategy called “putting pressure with the business” the associations of local entrepreneurs are first contacted and financed (even with luxurious trips to China for the most relevant entrepreneurs) and then used to influence administrations local, when will be needed, even after years.
Politicians are another favorite point of contact for the CCP: even second-rate but promising politicians are bought ahead of time. If they reach important positions they will be compliant (and in debt) towards Beijing.
The list of friendly politicians under the influence of Beijing is long and well documented… (USA, UK, AU, ITA, DE and FR politics).
As a proof, many experienced politicians across the West have second careers as leaders of Think Thank, pro-China foundations and associations; entities that are never spontaneous but always controlled and orchestrated by the CCP.
Locally: Western politicians and entrepreneurs are contacted by harmless pro-China cultural or twinning entities that are actually front agencies controlled by the CCP’s “United Front”.
Finally, universities are a new front on which the CCP acts, through subsidies to universities but also (and above all?) through a flow of students from the Chinese “bourgeoisie”, who are sent to study in the US and UK. Huawei itself invests several tens of millions of dollars of its budget in Western universities; it could be a simple marketing action, if Huawei weren’t the main tech company directly controlled by the CCP.
In essence, the funding for Western universities is used to remove “burning” issues for the CCP — such topic as Hong Kong, human rights, Falung Gong — from the programs, or to censor the visits of unwelcome guests such as the Dalai Lama, or members of Uyghur minorities.
However, there has been a change of direction by the most important universities, such as Oxford University, Stanford University, MIT, Berkeley University: all have announced that they will no longer accept Huawei’s funding. A positive sign, but then it will be the secondary universities that will receive more attention of the United Front, always according to the strategy from the periphery to the center.
The Take away
The first duty of the citizens of Western democracies is to stay informed, “to check the corner”. As the authors reiterate: “The CCP prefers to operate in the shade and often sunlight is the most effective disinfectant.”
A careful citizenship will be able to defend civil and political liberties, and will be able to carry out boycott campaigns against universities, institutions and companies that let Beijing dictate their agenda and which censor themes normally free in the West.
“The CCP prefers to operate in the shade and often sunlight is the most effective disinfectant.”
The other part of the job will have to be done by Western governments — like the USA, EU, Canada, Australia and partner states including maybe Russia (post-Putin Russia?) — defending companies and universities, financing the media so as not to having to depend on the advertising investments of the PCC (example: ads by Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO).
Laws will also have to be enacted to bind the main assets, and the key networks of national services — such as electricity, water, telephony — so that they are not monopolised by foreign multinationals, and lastly— finally quoting at Trump — campaign fund laws and lobbies need to be enacted.
Good continuation John
// Useful resources //
Falung gong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong
Tiananmen Square protests or Tiananmen Square Massacre (天安门大屠杀) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests
Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party Is Reshaping the World (amazon.com) — ISBN978–88–9325–835–7 https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Hand-Exposing-Communist-Reshaping/dp/1786077833
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