Some years ago when I was on the Hill and Congress was in the middle of its latest battle over export controls and entity lists, I had a conversation of hypotheticals with a tech industry lobbyist. I’d asked point blank if, should a particular PRC company be named on the entity black list, would they (the US company) not simply sell to the shell company or unlisted subsidiary said blacklisted company would inevitably set up? Without hesitating, they answered that of course they would sell their product to the PRC entity.
Around the same time, I asked a different industry rep how they felt about their products being components in PLA missiles aimed right back at them? This person had previously worked for Congress and helped write the legislation they were now arguing against for their corporate bosses. And they responded “who can tell, there’s no proof.” Then there were the conversations with retail corporate execs who said “who cares about Chin-chang (Xinjiang)?” The think tanks spouting PRC talking points and taking their cash under guises of pacifism and peace. I could go on and on.
If you’ve worked in China policy for any length of time and aren’t on the take, you’re acutely familiar with these conversations. We’ve all had them. And for years we’ve been gaslit, lambasted, called hysterics, paranoid, and worse. We’ve watched our friends and colleagues get conned into supporting the very politicians who enable and perhaps even partake in these corrupt and double dealing practices. We’ve been told that real patriotism meant selling our best technologies to the CCP. We few remaining hawks are a rare breed, and I don’t say that as a point of pride.
And then the Jensen news broke last week. Then follow-on stories broke that the administration knew and did nothing. And I’m sure in between this writing and publication more stories will have broken. The levee has broken.
One of the most powerful symbols of Silicon Valley, of the AI Age, the man who said it was good for America to sell his unobtanium to the Main Enemy, was having an affair with an (alleged) MSS asset.
Vindication is a useless feeling if it leads to nothing.
All that matters is what happens next.
Timing is everything, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that all of this drops right after the election. Power balances are shifting in Washington and certain teams are making their moves to position for 2028 and trying to shape future policy. This after the Dems wiped the floor with the GOP in the Midterms partially on a platform of government accountability and anti-corruption (in addition to the number one issue of affordability). As we say, there’s blood in the water and every shark this side of the Potomac can smell it. The fact is that America cannot revitalize itself, it cannot rebuild, without rooting out the corruption that has become so representative of our politics and corporate environment. And there is finally energy from the electorate and the new Congressional freshmen class to do something about it. As the Russians have shown in Ukraine, you cannot win a war when your government is hobbled by corruption. Fighting the CCP starts here.
Corruption in American politics is older than the Republic itself and will forever be with us. But the scale of corruption has ebbed and flowed with political waves and historical events: the civil service and regulatory reforms of the 1800s and early 1900s, the Cold War defense contractor scandals and subsequent reforms, the Teapot Dome Scandal, hell even US Grant’s father was scheming and scamming the USG during the Civil War as his own son put traitors in their graves by the bushel.
From the Gulf states to the Russians and the PRC, we are being picked apart like roadkill by foreign states flush with cash. We have enabled the greediest and simplest among us to govern and run entire industries. We tried, we really did, to curtail all of this years ago. The FBI briefings to Silicon Valley on foreign intelligence service and IP theft practices did next to nothing. The Counter-CCP Committee tried and was squashed and sabotaged by various interest groups and Congressional and Executive leadership. Various small groups at DoD, State, Commerce, and Treasury tried and were put in the corner for higher priorities and a threat to convenience. Washington think tanks were gobbed up by autocratic oil money amidst the fever dream that was the Global War on Terror. Silicon Valley did its part by ensuring that export controls for the technologies that enable American economic and military might never got too strict.
Don’t get me wrong, we got some stuff done, but the impediment to real success was always the corruption, and even more so, the very legal corporate interests that dominated discourse, economic growth, and American political cash flows. It was always convenient for people to run on China as an issue but always inconvenient to do something about it.
Today we have a real opportunity to turn the momentum in our favor. Not because the new wave of Dems has a particular interest in marching on Beijing or because the GOP under Trump has finally seen the error of its ways, but because there is a majority in Congress whom we now have common cause: pushing the foreign autocratic interests and corruption out of our politics. It will show everyone just how harmful CCP influence is to our system. In other words, good China policy flows from a successful anti-corruption campaign.
So how can us hawks be helpful in our new reformist era?
We know the networks, we know the players, we know all the baddies we’ve been hunting for the last decade. We’ve been begging for someone to look at the receipts and take the fight to them. Well, it’s time to bring the receipts. All of them.
Because it’s not enough to get a scalp or two or simply focus on a single criminal ring or politician. You have to drive out all the rats that came in with the storm and took up residence in the house for the last decade. It will take a lot of work, but just like with going to war with Russian influence, we can help point folks in the right direction. The Jamestown Foundation and countless open source analysts and interest groups have done outstanding work in this regard.
Entity lists and outbound investment controls aren’t enough. You have to disincentivize those who would work with the PRC, you have to cut off the money and the potential of more money. You have to prosecute those who worked on behalf of the PRC and their corporate entities. You have to make it so incredibly painful for anyone who thinks the best way to make it in America is to champion hostile foreign interests under the guise of the free market. Those who are corrupt and are willing to advocate for autocracies, no matter the reason, will always be a threat to democracy and an obstacle to a strong foreign policy because a democracy they cannot control will be an obstacle to their own financial and ideological interests. A functioning, capable federal government is necessary for competing and beating the PRC, and we remain dysfunctional so long as it’s cool to work for and with those hostile to our wellbeing.
For as long as we don’t push out the corruption and corporate interests, we will always be vulnerable. The PRC understands a corrupt system of patronage more than it does an effective democracy, meaning it can better exploit those who it sees a mirrors of its own political structure. You don’t get to have your fight with the CCP and win unless you disentangle the roots of authoritarian influence from American government. And unless we work together and prosecute those who worked so hard on behalf of their own greed and the interests of the autocrats, they will change shape and hide until they can take advantage of us again.
So let’s smoke em out.
Thanks for reading! If you would like to read more about the future of war and technology, check out my novel, EX SUPRA. It’s all about the world after the fall of Taiwan, an isolationist and hyper-partisan America, and World War III. (It also just so happens to feature a chapter on a tech CEO getting conned by an MSS love interest.) It was nominated for a Prometheus Award for best science fiction novel and there’s a sequel in the works! Don’t forget to share and subscribe!