China taking aim at U.S. states for subversion, new report warns

The People’s Republic of China is focused on subverting the United States through operations at the state and local level, and greater efforts are needed to counter the danger, according to a report made public Wednesday.

Chinese government agents are waging a large-scale Cold War-style campaign against America that includes fueling deadly fentanyl trafficking, cyber infiltration into critical infrastructure systems, subverting universities and spending large amounts to influence state and local governments to support the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s goals, the report said.

The 64-page collection of 10 essays, “Threat Assessment: The CCP Threat and How State Leaders Can Protect Our Country and Citizens,” is being made public Wednesday. The report was by two groups focused on regional security issues, State Armor and Citizens for Free Enterprise.

Former Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, head of Citizens for Free Enterprise and author of one of the sections of the report, said state governors are becoming better educated about subversive Chinese activities and are working with their legislatures to meet the challenge.

“Our goal with ’Threat Assessment’ is to sound the alarm for state leaders and give them a playbook and tools so they can take action to protect their states from CCP threats,” Mr. Ducey said. “This is a drum that we intend to continue to beat.”

Former White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said in the report that China is spending “trillions of dollars” under an initiative called “Made in China 2025” to achieve global domination of high-tech industries such as robotics, advanced information technology, aviation, electric vehicles, quantum computing, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems.

Chinese firms are buying up U.S. farmland, posing a threat to American food supplies, and Chinese-owned apps like TikTok are feeding vitriolic anti-U.S. propaganda to young people, he said.

“China’s ambitions have become clear: Undermine the West at any cost,” Mr. O’Brien stated in a foreword to the report. “U.S. vulnerabilities are not only a federal problem but also a national problem that requires a coordinated response at the state and local level.”

Alexander Gray, another former Trump administration White House official, wrote in the report that the Biden administration in March sent a letter to all governors warning about the threat of Chinese infiltration of critical infrastructure. The letter urged state governments to partner with state, local, tribal and territorial governments to counter the threats.

But Mr. Gray said many states and localities remain unaware of the dangers and are susceptible to Chinese influence operations in peacetime and, in a potential wartime scenario, a wide array of potential Chinese coercive measures.

Peacetime concerns include China’s recruitment of experts to obtain sensitive technology from U.S. universities and the use of Beijing-funded centers that promote Chinese Communist ideology on campuses. CCP agents also are deployed in the United States to harass and intimidate people in universities that oppose Chinese authoritarianism.

The activities also include cooperative initiatives “to subvert or compromise state and local officials,” Mr. Gray said.

Two recent FBI investigations uncovered Chinese agents working for state and local governments: Linda Sun, an aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, was arrested in September and charged with being a Chinese agent, while in California, FBI agents arrested a campaign official for a local politician who was charged in December with acting as a covert Chinese agent.

Mr. Ducey, the former Arizona governor, said local officials need greater support and information from federal law enforcement and intelligence officials to neutralize Chinese operations that include offers of economic development.

“If the goal is to promote state economic development, there are far better ways to benefit your state and community than by acting as an unwitting participant in the [China’s] influence operations,” Mr. Ducey said.

Governors should develop strategies to bring back critical production in their states and attract foreign direct investment from trusted nations “that share our values and not adversaries that are trying to engineer our downfall,” he said.

Mr. Ducey was in office when in 2020 the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) agreed to spend $12 billion on a microchip plant in Arizona.