By Sheng Xue
Only a strong America led by Donald Trump can counter communist China.
Commentary
With the winner of the U.S. election still undecided, I’m hoping that, after the truth comes out about voter fraud and Congress validates the Electoral College’s tally on Jan. 6, Donald Trump will serve a second term—because some of the important work he began in his first term is still not finished.
The two greatest enemies of both the United States and the world are the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and international terrorism. During his first term, Trump trounced the ISIS terrorist group, but terrorism from other groups and malign governments could erupt at any time and needs a strong hand to keep it at bay. Trump has shown that he can do it.
As for the CCP, it was exhilarating for me to see him go up against that brutal and deceitful regime, no holds barred, in the past year or so.
I know first-hand the tyrannical nature of China’s communist regime. My family members were considered enemies of the state and cruelly persecuted because my grandfather had been a politician in the previous government before the communists took over.
My father, a teacher, was accused of being a spy and sent to a labour camp, while my mother, who came from a wealthy family, was abused by officials and made to work on construction sites. My sister and I were sent to the countryside, where we were seen as political outcasts and endlessly bullied.
Discrimination and abuse were so much a part of my childhood that I often wanted to commit suicide. But I decided to stand for justice and fight against the CCP, and when I was 17, the rise of the Democracy Wall Movement brought a glimmer of hope for China and the Chinese people.
A decade later, during the Tiananmen Square protests near my home in Beijing, I went every day to join the students in their quest for democracy for China. Then on the night of June 3, 1989, on orders from Party leaders, armoured tanks rolled in with guns blazing. Two people next to me were shot. The democracy movement was quelled, and the world got a glimpse of the true face of this vicious communist regime.
Two months later, I left China for Canada, where I’ve worked with the overseas Chinese pro-democracy movement ever since.
I was now in a free country, but I soon saw that the long arm of Beijing had already reached into Canada, with its ceaseless promotion of its business interests, media, and communist culture. The regime’s pervasive espionage, influence-spreading, IP theft, compromising of political and community leaders, United Front operations, infiltration and theft of research at colleges and universities, “debt-trap diplomacy” in developing countries, and interference with the Chinese diaspora has expanded exponentially since then, not just in Canada but also on every continent and in every country.
For many years, a strong world leader has been desperately needed to rein in this regime that rides roughshod over the rules-based international order, but nobody stepped up.
Then Trump came along, and he knew. He knew the CCP had to be stopped, not just for the good of America but for the good of the world. And he knew how to go about it.
He has confronted China on multiple fronts. He initiated a trade war to improve a very unfair trading system that favoured the CCP. He designated Huawei and ZTE as national security threats and blacklisted Chinese communist military companies operating directly or indirectly in the United States.
He also cracked down on Chinese espionage, closed the Chinese Consulate in Houston, designated the United Front as a foreign mission, and named 15 Chinese state-owned news outlets as foreign missions, identifying them as propaganda organs of the CCP. In addition, he imposed restrictions on the ability of CCP members and their families to travel to the United States and barred key members of the Party from immigrating to the United States. These are just some of the measures Trump has taken, and there are others in the works.
He is the first U.S. president to confront the Chinese Communist Party directly. When Ronald Reagan was president, he went up against the Russian communists, which subsequently led to the end of the Soviet regime—an amazing achievement.
Similarly, Trump is endeavouring to stop the CCP tyranny. But the Beijing regime is far stronger than the Soviet Union was, with China being the world’s second-largest economy. It has so much money and so much influence in every corner of the world.
Within China, the regime uses lies, violence, and deceit to manipulate and control the people. For too long, the world has turned a blind eye to its many crimes against humanity, from killing Falun Gong prisoners of conscience to fuel China’s lucrative organ trade, to mass detention and brainwashing of Uyghur Muslim minorities in concentration, to using slave labour, to repressing Christians and burning down churches.
Then there’s the pandemic. Whether the virus began in the Wuhan wildlife market or at the local biolaboratary, the CCP allowed it to spread around the world, causing incalculable damage and leaving death and destruction in its wake.
The virus reflects the ruthlessness of the regime and its malevolent intentions. If the world got an idea of the brutality of the CCP after the Tiananmen Square massacre, its behaviour around the pandemic lifted the veil completely, such as its coverup of the outbreak, silencing of whistleblowers, suppression of evidence, spreading of propaganda blaming the United States for the pandemic, and hoarding of masks and other PPE.
These are among the reasons why having Trump as president for another term is so important. But it’s very late in the game, and if the fight to stop Chinese communist encroachment is to succeed, other democratic allies must align with Trump and step up to help.
The American people must also support getting to the bottom of the election fraud, and the media should be fair and drop their hostile attitude toward Trump.
The majority of media have always challenged Trump and given him a negative image, despite accomplishments such as lowering taxes and regulations that generated record economic growth (before the pandemic), greatly reducing illegal immigration, making America the world’s largest petroleum and natural gas producer through resource development, a breakthrough on peace in the Middle East, and many more including, of course, confronting China.
Because stopping the CCP relates directly to the safety of the country and the safety of Americans, politicians, the media, and the people should support Trump.
Based on the Constitution, the United States is a country that recognizes and protects the various individual liberties of its citizens, making it a beacon of freedom in the world. This is something that must be safeguarded.
In addition, a Biden presidency should worry the American public and those in the freedom and democracy camp in the world. Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, is being investigated by the FBI for his tax affairs as well as violation of money laundering laws in business dealings in foreign countries, particularly China. There are also credible allegations that he was selling access to his father to Chinese and Ukrainian officials while Joe Biden was vice-president. This indicates that Biden has been co-opted by the CCP.
If Biden becomes the next U.S. president, the situation will revert to the status quo, giving the Chinese regime more time to continue with its agenda and grow even stronger. The same goes for terrorism. A dark period will descend on the world.
I believe that a strong and prosperous United States, with continued economic development under Trump, would also benefit the development and security of Canada.
President Reagan was lauded as one of the greatest leaders of the United States, mainly because he strengthened the economy and was instrumental in the collapse of the Soviet Union. In just three and a half years, President Trump has accomplished even more in many ways—all the while amid tremendous resistance.
Isn’t it not only desirable but also necessary that this president serve a second term?
Sheng Xue is an Ontario-based poet, writer, journalist, commentator, and a key leader of the overseas Chinese pro-democracy movement. She is vice-president of the Federation for a Democratic China and co-founder of the Canadian Coalition Against Communism. She has been banned from visiting her home country of China because of her human rights work and political activities.
