Spewing more disinformation in the waning days of the Trump presidency, 55-year-old Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe wrote in the Wall Street Journal that China performs “human testing” to create “biologically enhanced soldiers,” warning about China being the biggest threat to U.S. national security. But Ratcliffe makes some whopping statements that aren’t backed up with any facts, sounding more like science fiction than anything real. If the Chinese military puts it soldiers through a more brutal boot camp to provide better conditioning for its conscripts, that’s hardly using genetic engineering to create “biologically enhanced soldiers.” Even if the Chinese military fed soldiers adderall or other types of stimulants, that wouldn’t qualify as Ratcliffe suggests some kind of super-humans with which to fight its battles. Ratcliffe says the U.S. must be prepared for “open-ended” confrontation.
More than any U.S. administration since former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger met with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai July 9, 1971, 74-year-old President Donald Trump made China the target of an aggressive overhaul of U.S. trade polices. President Richard Nixon followed up Kissinger’s opening, meeting with Chairman Mao Zedong Feb. 21-28, 1972 formally opening U.S. ties with Communist China. Over fifty years later, Trump concluded that China was stealing U.S. jobs, driving manufacturing out of the United States. Trump built his foreign policy on China “ripping off” of the United States, both in terms of stealing intellectual property but also gutting U.S. manufacturing jobs. If U.S. and foreign companies moved manufacturing to China it was because they wanted bigger profits, capitalizing on China’s cheap labor prices for all types of manufacturing.
Ratcliffe’s statements, whether there’s any truth to them or not, alienates the Chinese government, offers no suggestions for improving already strained relations. Whatever the Biden family’s past business ties with China, there’s no question that things got worse under Trump. Trump’s trade representative Peter Navarro wrote the book on China’s wholesale theft of U.S. property, blaming China for practically everything. Then the Wuhan, China-originated coronavirus AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 hit the U.S. last January, creating the worst infectious disease crisis in the 1918 Spanish Flu global pandemic that killed up to 100 million worldwide. Now Ratcliffe takes his parting shots at China, accusing China of trying to “dominate” the planet, not specifically about the novel coronavirus but because Beijing doesn’t like to follow international agreements, especially about open seas.
Ratcliffe wasn’t the first or the last U.S. official to question China’s foreign policy that looks to control the archipelago in the South China Sea, building out military installations in shallow shoals, violating the sovereignty of Pacific Rim countries like the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. Taking China to the Hague’s International Criminal Court hasn’t meant much because, no matter what the rulings against China, there’s no enforcement mechanism. Former President George W. Bush found out the hard way April1, 2001 with China when a U.S. surveillance plane was intercepted and forced to land on Hainan Island. China kept the plane and the crew for over 30 days before releasing the crew and returning the dissembled plane in cartons. China used the Hainan island incident as a shot across the bow to the U.S. Trump’s been the first president to go after China’s economy.
Ratcliffe said Beijing “conducted human testing on members of the People’s Liberation Army in hope of developing soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities,” antagonizing the Chinese Foreign Ministry. “There are no ethical boundaries to Beijing’s pursuit of power,” Ratcliffe said, conflating China’s aggressive foreign policy with its right to train its military anyway it wants. Ratcliffe sees that he’s out the door soon, turning reigns over to 78-year-old President-elect Joe Biden Jan. 20, 2021. “The Peoples Republic of China poses the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom worldwide since WW II,” Ratcliffe said. Apart from a few skirmishes in the open seas, there’s no evidence that China has taken one inch of sovereign land like Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ratcliffe conflates U.S. economic issues with China actions with sovereign states.
China’s Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunging called Ratcliffe’s words “fake news” that continued to hurt U.S.-Sino relations. “We hope that American politicians will respect the facts, stop making and selling fake news, stop fabricating and spreading political viruses and lies and stop damaging Sino-U.S. relations, otherwise it will on further damage the credibility of the United States. Ratcliffe went all over the map accusing China’s of “biological” manipulation and back to old complaints about China’s theft of intellectual property. Biden’s foreign policy team led by 56-year-old Secretary of State Tony Blinken will take a very different approach to China, returning to the pre-Trump era where both sides show a modicum of respect. Whatever China does with it’s military is there business. Trump played the China card for whatever it was worth. still losing the Nov. 3. election.
