Stay the Course on China: An Open Letter to President Trump
Posted on July 18, 2019
Published by The Journal of Political Risk
Dear President Trump,
Over America’s exceptional history, successive generations have risen to the challenge of protecting and furthering our founding principles, and defeating existential threats to our liberties and those of our allies. Today, our generation is challenged to do the same by a virulent and increasingly dangerous threat to human freedoms – the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) through the nation it misrules: the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
The Chinese Communists’ stated ambitions are antithetical to America’s strategic interests, and the PRC is increasingly taking actions that imperil the United States and our allies. The past forty years during which America pursued an open policy of “engagement” with the PRC have contributed materially to the incremental erosion of U.S. national security.
This cannot be permitted to continue.
China is not as we wish it to be. In our political system, politics is the norm, and war is the exception. It is explicitly the opposite in the PRC’s worldview. Going forward, we must better understand and deal with this dangerous asymmetry.
We the undersigned, are encouraged by the broad and coherent strategy of robust, alternative policies you have adopted to confront the PRC’s campaign to undermine the national interests of the United States and its allies. We encourage you to stay the course on your path of countering Communist China.
We acknowledge and support your robust National Security Strategy that properly sets forth why the United States must counter the PRC. Opposing the advance of tyranny is fully in keeping with the founding principles of America and our rich heritage of defending freedom and liberty, both at home and, where necessary, abroad.
We note the PRC does not recognize the principles and rules of the existing international order, which under a Pax Americana has enabled the greatest period of peace and global prosperity in mankind’s history. The PRC rejects this order both ideologically and in practice. China’s rulers openly proclaim and insist on a new set of rules to which other nations must conform, such as their efforts to dominate the East and South China Seas and the so-called “Belt and Road Initiative,” with its debt-trap diplomacy, designed to extend such hegemony worldwide. The only persistently defining principle of the CCP is the sustainment and expansion of its power.
Over the past forty years of Sino-American relations, many American foreign policy experts did not accurately assess the PRC’s intentions or attributed the CCP’s reprehensible conduct to the difficulties of governing a country of 1.3 billion people. American policymakers were told time and again by these adherents of the China-engagement school that the PRC would become a “responsible stakeholder” once a sufficient level of economic modernization was achieved. This did not happen and cannot so long as the CCP rules China.
The PRC routinely and systematically suppresses religious freedom and free speech, including the imprisonment of over one million citizens in Xinjiang and the growing suppression of Hong Kong’s autonomy. The PRC also routinely violates its obligations, as it does with the World Trade Organization, freedom of navigation and the protection of coral reefs in the South China Sea. Beijing then demands that its own people and the rest of the world accept their false narratives and justifications, demands aptly termed as “Orwellian nonsense.”
The PRC is not and never has been a peaceful regime. It uses economic and military force – what it calls its “comprehensive national power” – to bully and intimidate others. The PRC threatens to wage war against a free and democratically led Taiwan.
It is expanding its reach around the globe, co-opting our allies and other nations with the promise of economic gain, often with authoritarian capitalism posing as free commerce, corrupt business practices that go-unchecked, state-controlled entities posing as objective academic, scientific or media institutions and trade and development deals that lack reciprocity, transparency and sustainability. The CCP corrupts everything it touches.
This expansionism is not random or ephemeral. It is manifestly the unfolding of the CCP’s grand strategy. The Party’s ambitions have been given many names, most recently the “China Dream,” the “great rejuvenation” of China, or the “Community of Common Destiny.” The “Dream” envisioned by the Communist Party is a nightmare for the Chinese people and the rest of the world.
We firmly support the Chinese people, the vast majority of whom want to live peaceful lives.
But we do not support the Communist government of China, nor its control by the dangerous Xi Jinping clique. We welcome the measures you have taken to confront Xi’s government and selectively to decouple the U.S. economy from China’s insidious efforts to weaken it. No amount of U.S. diplomatic, economic, or military “engagement” will disrupt the CCP’s grand strategy.
If there is any sure guide to diplomatic success, it is that when America leads—other nations follow. If history has taught us anything it is that clarity and commitment of leadership in addressing existential threats, like from the PRC, will be followed by our allies when policy prescriptions such as yours become a reality. The PRC’s immediate strategy is to delay, stall, and otherwise wait out your presidency. Every effort must be made therefore to institutionalize now the policies and capabilities that can rebalance our economic relations with China, strengthen our alliances with like-minded democracies and ultimately to defeat the PRC’s global ambitions to suppress freedom and liberty.
Stay the Course!
Author of Letter
James E. Fanell
Captain, USN (Ret)
Former Director of Intelligence & Information Operations U.S. Pacific Fleet
To sign this letter and join the signatories below, click here and fill out a short form.
List of U.S. Signatures (Alphabetically as of July 18, 2019)
Willard Anderson
Clarence Anthony
Lieutenant Colonel, USMC (Ret)
Rod Azama
Director The Chancellor Group
Bob Baker
Former US Army Intelligence Analyst
Tim Beard
Rear Admiral, USN (Ret)
Michael Bender
Commander, USN (Ret)
Kenneth Benway
Lieutenant Colonel, USA (Ret)
U.S. Army Special Forces
Paul Berkowitz
Former Staff Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee
Joseph Bosco
Retired Department of Defense
E. Bostwick Jr.
Senior Intelligence Officer, GS-15 (Ret) USPACOM
Christopher Brassard
President Ten Eyck Group
Robert Brodsky
Captain, USN (Ret)
Nick Buck
Captain, USN (Ret)
Naushard Cader
Board Member/Director
Center for War and Peace Studies
Roger Canfield
Author americong.com and VVFH.org
Kevin Carrico
Senior Lecturer
Monash University
Dennis Carroll
Gordon Chang
Writer
Edward Connelly, Ph.D.
Chinese, Australian National University
Independent Translator
David Connelly III
Captain, USN (Ret)
Henry F. Cooper
Ambassador, former Chief Defense & Space Negotiator with the Soviet Union, SDI Director
Anders Corr, Ph.D.
Publisher Journal of Political Risk
Demetrius Cox
Lieutenant Commander, USN (Ret)
U.S. Pacific Fleet Veteran Intelligence Officer
Michael Craven
Iara Celeste Diaz
Painter
Kenneth deGraffenreid
Former Special Assistant to the President, Senior Director of Intelligence Programs, Ronald Reagan National Security Council
Donny DeLeon
Filipino American Human Rights Alliance
Chuck DeVore
Lieutenant Colonel, USAR (Ret)
California State Assemblyman, 2004-2010; Special Assistant for Foreign Affairs, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1986-1988
Markham Dossett
Commander, USNR (ret)
June Teufel-Dreyer
Professor of Political Science University of Miami
Ian Easton
Research Fellow Project 2049 Institute
Robert D. Eldridge
President
The Eldridge Think Tank
Richard Fisher
Nels Frye
Art Furtney
Major, USMC, (Ret)
Frank J. Gaffney
Vice Chairman Committee on the Present Danger: China
Samantha Gay
Kerry K. Gershaneck
Professor & Senior Research Associate Thammasat University Faculty of Law (CPG)
Bill Gertz
Author “Deceiving the Sky: Inside Communist China’s Drive for Global Supremacy”
Paul Giarra
Commander, U.S. Navy (Ret)
Jose Gonzalez
Chadwick Gore
Former Staff Director House Foreign Affairs Europe, Eurasia, Emerging Threats subcommittee
James Grundvig
Freelance Investigative Journalist
Ilango Gurusamy
Owner, Freedom on Wheels LLC and Propellant Software
Lianchao Han
Vice-President Citizen Power Initiatives for China
Heath Hansen
Specialist, USA (Ret)
Veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan
William Hawkins
President Hamilton Center for National Strategy
Donald Henry
Captain, USN, (Ret)
William C. Horn
Captain, USN (Ret)
Bradley Johnson
President Americans for Intelligence Reform
Frank Kelly
Captain, USN (Ret)
James D. Kelly
Rear Admiral, USN (Ret)
President Center for International Exchange-US (NPO)
Miles Killoch
Roy Kirvan, Ph.D.
U.S. Intelligence Community (Ret)
Ted Kresge
Lieutenant General, USAF (Ret)
Former Vice Commander U.S. Pacific Air Forces
Emil Levine
Captain, USNR, (Ret)
Steve Lewandowski
Claire Lopez
VP for Research & Analysis
Center for Security Policy
Ben Lowsen
China Strategist U.S. Air Force / Sawdey Solution Services, LLC
Holly Lynch
Democrat Candidate for NY’s 10th Congressional District
Tim Lyon
Captain, USN (Ret)
Victor Mair
Professor University of Pennsylvania
Rod Martin
Founder & CEO The Martin Organization, Inc.
Tidal W. McCoy
Former Acting Secretary of the U.S. Air Force
Thomas G. McInerney
Lieutenant General, USAF (Ret)
Assistant Vice Chief of Staff U.S. Air Force
Randy McSmith
Master Chief Petty Officer, USN (Ret)
John Mengel
Captain, USN (Ret)
Paul Midler
Author “What’s Wrong with China”
John Mills
Colonel, USAR (Ret)
Director (Ret) Cybersecurity Policy, Strategy, and International Affairs
James Mishina
Lieutenant Colonel, USA (Ret)
U.S. Tax Payer
Wayne Morris
Colonel, USMC (Ret)
Numerous Military Veteran Associations
Steven Mosher
President Population Research Institute
Denis Muller
Lieutenant Colonel, USMC (Ret)
Merle Mulvaney
Lieutenant Colonel, USA (Ret)
Member, Red Star Rising
Charles “Chuck” Nash
Captain USN (Ret)
Jim Newman
Captain, USN (Ret)
JHU/APL
Grant Newsham
Colonel, USMCR (retired)
Visiting Scholar, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
Roscoe Nicholson II
International Consultant
Peter O’Brien
Captain, USN (Ret)
Edward O’Dowd
PhD & Colonel, USA, (Ret)
Kyle Olbert
Director of Operations East Turkistan National Awakening Movement
Don Oliphant
President
DWO Enterprises
Robert Oster
Private Investor
Rebeca Page
Publisher
SD Metro Magazine
Robert Page
Chairman/CEO REP Publishing, Inc.
Russ Penniman
Rear Admiral, USN (Ret)
Former Reserve Deputy Commander U.S. Pacific Fleet
Lawrence Peter
Lieutenant Commander, USN (Ret)
Peter Pry
Dr. & Director EMP Task Force
Robert Rector
Eric Reddig
U.S. Navy Veteran
J.R. Reddig
Captain, USN, (Ret)
Louis Riggio
Eric Rohrbach
Robert Rohrer
Gerard Roncolato
Captain, USN (Ret.)
Warren Henry Rothman
Robert Rubel
Captain, USN (Ret)
Mark Safranski
Publisher zenpundit.com
Junko Sakamoto
Consultant
Michael Schauf
Captain USN (Ret)
Military Intelligence
Stuart Schippereit
Commander, USN (Ret)
Former naval intelligence analyst
Paul Schmehl
VVFH
Suzanne Scholte
President Defense Forum Foundation
Carl Schuster
Captain, USN (Ret)
Adjunct Faculty, Hawaii Pacific University
Dan Seesholtz
Captain, USN (Ret)
Lawrence Sellin
Colonel, USAR (Ret)
Iraq and Afghanistan veteran
William Sharp
Former Host, Asia in Review
Stephen Sherman
Director RADIX Foundation
Scott Shipman
Owner B.B. Hoss, Inc.
Joseph Smith
President (Ret) Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals
Fred Smith
Captain, USN (Ret)
Lecturer, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
Peter Smith
Captain, USN (Ret)
Consultant
Pete Speer
Lieutenant Commander, USN (Ret)
Member, Red Star Rising
William A. Stanton
Former Director of the American Institute in Taiwan
Guy Stitt
CEO AMI International
Duane Stober
Captain, USNR, (Ret)
Former Reserve Intelligence Coordinator Area One
Mark Stokes
Executive Director Project 2049 Institute
Fred Stratton
Commander, USN (Ret)
Gary Stubblefield
Commander, USN (Ret)
John Tate
Commander, USN (Ret)
Bradley Thayer
Professor University of Texas San Antonio
Mark Tiernan
Captain, USNR (Ret)
John J. Tkacik
Director, Future Asia Project International Assessment and Strategy Center
Don Tse
Lead researcher SinoInsider
Paul Valleley
Major General, USA (Ret)
Chairman Stand Up America
John E. Vinson
Captain USN, (Ret)
Thomas Wade
Arthur Waldron
Lauder Professor of international Relations
University of Pennsylvania
Yana Way
Educator, Way Tutoring
Toshi Yoshihara
PhD, Author “Red Star Over the Pacific”
James Zumwalt
Lieutenant Colonel, USMC (Ret)
Jennifer Zeng
Author of “Witnessing History: One Woman’s Fight for Freedom and Falun Gong”
Foreign Signatures (As of July 18, 2019)
Terence Russell
Senior Scholar University of Manitoba
Canada
Doris Liu
Independent documentary journalist
Canada
Jianli Yang
Founder & President Citizen Power Initiatives for China
China
Elena Bernini
CEO Oxford Omnia International
Italy
Satoshi Nishihata
Washington Bureau Chief The Liberty, Happy Science USA
Japan
Larry Ong
Senior analyst SinoInsider
Singapore
Chu-cheng Ming
Senior researcher SinoInsider
Taiwan
