Xi Confident Due to D.C. Connection?

China’s Communist Party ended its annual meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC) on Monday. The rubber stamp event might not make exciting front-page news, but there are a number of China-related events this week that are disconcerting given that they expose Beijing’s reach directly in the corridors of power in Washington, DC.

The goal of the NPC is to set policy direction and lay out the economic agenda for the coming year. This session is the first after last autumn’s week-long, 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, which is held every five years. At the October meeting President Xi Jinping secured his third five-year term as party general secretary. This week’s meeting is significant in that, with Xi in total control, there were a number of leadership statements indicating the direction in which he intends to take the country, the restructuring of state institutions, who is part of the new leadership, and the general tone of policy for the coming 12 months. Xi is not backing down from the CCP’s aggressive policies. It also appears willing to use any means necessary to achieve them, including influence operations extending into the highest levels of power in the American government.

Xi Jinping has consolidated power at a level unprecedented since Chairman Mao held office and is now the country’s longest serving president since its founding in 1949. He exudes confidence, acts boldly, and plans for long-term victories. Mao Ning, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, says that the country “will continue to view and develop China-US relations in accordance with the principles of peaceful coexistence, mutual respect, and win-win cooperation.” The reality is quite different. China’s foreign influence operations are aggressive and have tenacles that appear to extend into the White House.

This week the investigative arm of an American news organization, the Daily Caller, reported that “The Hong Kong company which wired over $3 million bound for Biden family associates in 2017, appears to have been run by a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the time of the transfer.” A US House Oversight Committee memorandum revealed on Thursday that one month after then Vice President Biden left office, China’s State Energy HK Limited wired the $3 million to Robinson Walker, LLC. That company is run by “Biden family associate” John Robinson Walker, according to US government memorandum. An official Chinee government website named Lei Donghui, chairman and executive director of State Energy HK Limited, as a long-standing member of the Chinese Communist Party. As recently as this month Lei was pictured on Twitter at a company meeting.

“From State Energy HK Limited’s $3 million transfer, Robinson Walker, LLC subsequently distributed $1,065,692 in ‘incremental payments over a period of approximately three months’ to as many as four Biden family members, according to the memorandum,” says investigative reporter Philip Lenczycki. He adds that the funds were transferred to “Hallie Biden, James Brian Biden Sr. (James Biden), Robert Hunter Biden (Hunter Biden) and an ‘unknown bank account identified as ‘Biden,’” according to the committee’s memorandum. IT also says additional payments went to Biden family companies, including Owasco PC, JBBSR Inc and RSTP II, LLC. Lenczycki adds that “On March 2, 2017, Robinson Walker, LLC sent another $1,065,000 from State Energy HK Limited’s $3 million transfer to the European Energy and Infrastructure Group in Abu Dhabi, a self-styled “advisory organization,” according to the memorandum. He noted that James Gilliar, a “business partner of Hunter Biden,” is allegedly “associated” with EEIG, according to the committee.

At this week’s NPC meeting, Xi cast blame on the United States for trying to “contain and suppress” China, although the Biden Administration has not taken very effective or strong steps to stop Chinese aggressive moves overseas. At a news conference following the NPC, Qin Gang, China’s Foreign Minister warned of “confrontation and conflict.” This appears to be the first time China directly named the United States. It may be time to find those in Washington willing to create a Great Wall of Capitalism to preserve our way of life.

Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept.

Quick Analysis

Putin’s Saber Rattling

Earlier this week, President Biden reversed his 2022 decision, authorizing the provision of antipersonnel land mines to the Ukrainian government. It follows an earlier Administration authorization to allow the use of an advanced American missile system capable of striking as deep as 100 miles inside Russian territory. The US election season may be ending, but both Russia and the West show no indication of stepping down the conflict. Russian propaganda continues to swell as the Kremlin increases its threats to use nuclear weapons against the West. Last week Andrey Sushentsov, program director of the pro-Kremlin think tank Valdai Discussion Club (VDC), published an article on growing nuclear tensions in the region. Official Russian language in the last few years has been threatening. Since the US election, rhetoric like that in the Sushentsov article, has approached the level of nuclear blackmail. The VDC article’s main theme centers on Russia’s intent to directly confront the West militarily if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) becomes involved in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine. “On the one hand, these threats are intended to frighten the West, but on the other, Russian propagandists themselves are starting to believe in the inevitability of escalation,” according to Ksenia Kirillova of the Jamestown Foundation. On November 11, Sushentsov wrote that “The conflict will reach a completely new level, with unpredictable consequences for Europe and the entire world.” Kirillova points out that Putin’s distorted image of the world is divorced from reality and is causing the Kremlin to issue demands that are impossible to fulfill. Financial and other Russian resources needed to support Putin’s war are growing scarcer at the same time. This week the Kremlin announced a reduction of payments to its soldiers. Recently North Korea acknowledged it was sending soldiers to fight in Ukraine as Putin is running out of bodies to use as cannon fire. The war is not going well for Russia. One question floating around the Washington intelligence community is whether Putin will act out of desperation before President-elect Trump assumes office. In recent months the Russian propaganda machine is spewing out materials from fairly reputable analytical platforms inside the country. Kirillova says that “Kremlin ‘experts’ do not conceal that such threats are only intended to break the West psychologically, as they themselves are not prepared for full-scale nuclear war.” Despite Russia’s lack of preparation for an all-out war with the West, the expanding nuclear rhetoric carries with it an increase in the threat of a full-scale war in multiple theaters of operation. In June 2023 a founder of the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Sergey Karaganov, called for “delivering a pre-emptive strike of retaliation” on Poland to force the West to surrender. In the previous month, Dmitry Suslov, a direct of research programs at the policy center proposed organizing “a demonstration nuclear explosion” aimed at intimidating the West. In September, President Putin announced a reappraisal of Russian nuclear doctrine after speaking earlier in the year at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and jokingly calling Suslov a “scary person.” Pavel Baev, writing in the European Daily Monitor, says “Putin intends his announcement to mark an escalation of nuclear brinkmanship and influence the proceedings of future Ukrainian peace efforts.” Putin is expanding the list of environmental conditions that are acceptable for using a nuclear weapon and incorporating it into Russian military doctrine. Baev adds that “The ups and downs of Russian brinkmanship are disconnected from the kinetic battles of the war, correlating instead with Ukrainian peace offensives, such as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s first peace summit in Bürgenstock, Switzerland.” Despite the increase in vitriolic language, in a You Tube video published a week before the US presidential election, Karaganov openly assured the West the primary goal of the escalation is to break the American spirit and that of the West, not outright nuclear war. By Election Day in the US, with political prognosticators predicting a win for former president Trump, Karaganov changed his tune and called for an increased role in nuclear deterrence. Kirillova points out that Western concessions to Russia are unlikely to reduce the risk of nuclear escalation. The distorted reality inside the Kremlin continues to push that President-elect Trump is an adherent of “world government,” that Ukraine will create a nuclear weapon, and Russia must prepare for a nuclear conflagration to achieve its ambitions for a new world order. President-elect Trump has indicated he will not agree to concessions that destabilize Europe, the Middle East or other regions. Going forward a strong US foreign policy may be the most stabilizing course the West can count on to restrain Putin and his intent to rebuild the Russian empire. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept. Illustration: Pixabay

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