{"id":1331924,"date":"2022-02-23T06:06:22","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T11:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1331924"},"modified":"2022-02-23T11:07:46","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T16:07:46","slug":"the-democratic-party-is-americas-pro-china-faction-an-interview-with-lee-smith-about-china-the-enemy-within","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-democratic-party-is-americas-pro-china-faction-an-interview-with-lee-smith-about-china-the-enemy-within\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Democratic Party Is America\u2019s Pro-China Faction\u2019: An Interview With Lee Smith About \u2018China: The Enemy Within\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-democratic-party-is-americas-pro-china-faction-an-interview-with-lee-smith-about-china-the-enemy-within%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1331924&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/02\/Readers-Pass-Johnson-%25E2%2580%2598The-Democratic-Party-Is-Americas-Pro-China-Faction-An-Interview-With-Lee-Smith-About-%25E2%2580%2598China_2.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><i>Best-selling author Lee Smith has produced The Daily Wire\u2019s new series, \u201cChina: The Enemy Within.\u201d Over his 30-year career, the veteran journalist has written numerous books and been published by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, among other publications. He is also a frequent guest on talk radio and TV, including regular appearances on Fox News. Smith recently discussed his new series with Daily Wire reporter Ben Johnson. The text of their interview has been lightly edited for grammar and clarity<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Ben Johnson:<\/b> Lee Smith, you\u2019re helming The Daily Wire\u2019s new documentary series, \u201cChina: The Enemy Within.\u201d China is clearly a global adversary, which is plotting to displace the United States as a global superpower. But people might be intrigued by the second half of that title. Who\u2019s the enemy within?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Lee Smith:<\/b> The enemy within is the main enemy: That is the American oligarchy, sweeping across everything from Big Tech to the NBA, Hollywood \u2014 the entire cultural apparatus of the United States. It would also include the art world, which makes a tremendous amount of money off of China. What we\u2019re describing here is an enormous network of American elites who draw their wealth, power, and prestige from their relationship with the Chinese Communist Party. That\u2019s the actual enemy \u2014 among other reasons, because it\u2019s virtually impossible to get to the Chinese Communist Party without going after our internal adversaries first, because they are embracing them. There is no way for Americans to face down Beijing, since our elites are protected.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Ben Johnson:<\/b> For a long time, they had a fig leaf of American foreign policy covering their own class interests. Certainly, going back to President Richard Nixon\u2019s decision to capitalize on the Sino-Soviet split, the opening of China worked to America\u2019s geopolitical benefit. It was only at the fall of the Soviet Union that China truly acquired the means to become a global superpower \u2014 all of which was funded by U.S. trade deals, as you point out so clearly in the very beginning of your series. What role did America play in building up its own enemies?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Lee Smith:<\/b> There is no powerful Chinese Communist Party without the United States. As you point out, Ben, it was a reasonable policy goal at a certain period to build up the Chinese as a wedge against the more powerful Communist Party at the time, which was that of the Soviet Union. However, at a certain point, we saw that American political, corporate, cultural, and academic elites were no longer talking about foreign policy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\">You can speak to different people who have worked on China. They correctly point out that it was a post-war foreign policy goal of the United States to go in and to establish economic ties with different states, to help lure them into the Western column. We tried the same thing in Italy, working with the Italian socialist to try to wrest them away from the Italian Communists: We opened our doors to South Korea, Japan, and a number of different states. Trying to work with the Chinese, to lure them into the Western column makes a certain amount of sense, up to a point. But there was nothing that helps American national security about exporting our manufacturing base to China, and that\u2019s what happened. So, the elites are still using the whole post-World War II foreign policy as an excuse. They\u2019ll say, \u201cWe\u2019re in there with China, and it\u2019s going slow. But we\u2019ve been at it for 50 years, and we\u2019re seeing some things change. Look for instance, I mean, for goodness sake, Beijing is hosting the winter Olympics right now.\u201d That\u2019s not a, a pro-Western thing, inviting the world to celebrate these games in China.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\">It\u2019s the Americans, it\u2019s our establishment who is defending this relationship. And this is one of the things that the Chinese understood. Once the American elites are given a stake, they would defend China by default, since they had to defend themselves. They had to cover their own flanks and in doing so, they would wind up covering for Beijing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Ben Johnson:<\/b> As you mentioned, the idea behind opening up China to trade was that there was an inextricable link between democracy and commerce: If we could democratize their markets, the Chinese would somehow democratize elections and liberalize their laws. When it comes to freedom of speech, freedom of political expression, etc., that clearly hasn\u2019t worked \u2014 in fact, China is becoming increasingly belligerent under Xi Jinping, who many people believe has neo-Maoist tendencies. However you describe a two-fold war, both of China against the United States, but also a war of American elites against the middle class. How will the American elites profit from this ongoing relationship with China, and how is it hurting average Americans?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Lee Smith:<\/b> Well, it\u2019s hurting average Americans not least because of the number of jobs that have been sent overseas. Everybody talks about the Chinese miracle, which is basically 400 to 500 million Chinese peasants who were taken off the land and given working-class or middle-class jobs. What people don\u2019t talk about is that it came at the expense of American workers. Look around and see what America still makes; it\u2019s shocking. We started to see some of this during COVID-19, when people realized we actually don\u2019t make any of our own pharmaceuticals here anymore. People started to realize all of this personal protective equipment that\u2019s supposed to help protect people from viruses like SARS-CoV-2, as it turns out, that\u2019s all made in China. This is the way that it\u2019s really hurting Americans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\">The other point is this: It\u2019s not just hurting working- and middle-class Americans in terms of jobs: It hurts our national security. That hurts all of us, all Americans across the board. What is it that the United States makes now? These are fundamental questions about the power of a country. What is a country capable of doing? What do we still make? What do we manufacture? Then we listen to all of the cliches we\u2019ve been hearing for the last 30 years: \u201cWell, we don\u2019t really manufacture anything anymore. We\u2019re a service economy now.\u201d This doesn\u2019t work in terms of how the world actually functions. If we were ever in the middle of a conflict \u2014 say a real shooting war with the Chinese Communist Party \u2014 and all of our pharmaceuticals, including penicillin, are made in China, what does that mean for the national security of the United States? It means that we are extraordinarily vulnerable. The different problems that we have are multileveled, multilayered, and they have come about because of how our corporate and political leaders have handed over American wealth, American power to the Chinese Communist Party to empower themselves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\">Unfortunately, we have to talk about something else and that is: Our establishment, as we\u2019ve certainly seen since the beginning of the Trump presidency, is at war with working- and middle-class Americans. This is what they mean when they say that they\u2019re fighting against populism. We\u2019re just Americans, right? We want to advance American interests. We want good things for our families, our communities, for our country. The oligarchy\u2019s on the other side of that. That\u2019s not where their money is; that\u2019s not where their interests are. So, we have as Americans, we have a two-front conflict involving the Chinese Communist Party, as well as our oligarchy. The way our oligarchs see it, China is their strategic center of gravity against America\u2019s working and middle classes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Ben Johnson:<\/b> Of course, after our manufacturing base was exported, we were told the best way to get ahead and realize the American dream was to get a good college education. Today, there are millions of Chinese also reaping the benefits of American academia for illicit purposes. In \u201cChina: The Enemy Within,\u201d you point out that this ranges everywhere from American professors who\u2019ve been paid off as spies for China, to the establishment of Confucius Institutes all over the country, or for that matter even exchange students who have been placed in American universities as spies. Perhaps the most famous spy of recent days is Fang Fang, who reportedly seduced Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) while posing as a student at California State University. Could there be thousands more Fang Fangs in American universities?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Lee Smith:<\/b> Yes, there are. I\u2019m very happy, Ben, that you raised this, because this is the fundamental issue, and this again, shows the network of interests of the American establishment. The FBI is alerted all the time about the number of Chinese spies and the amount of espionage that\u2019s going on at universities across the country, and sensitive research sites. The fact is there are 13,000 FBI agents who have to cover all foreign actors and terror groups. And unfortunately, as we know, they\u2019re spending a lot of time targeting Americans \u2014 targeting Donald Trump\u2019s supporters, for instance. But let\u2019s say the FBI is actually doing its job focusing on criminal enterprises and foreign threats within the United States. It has 13,000 agents: That\u2019s not enough to cover the hundreds of thousands of Chinese student visa holders there are in the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\">Why did that happen? Because of a combination of corporate interests, mostly Big Tech, as well as the universities, and American legislators providing more and more visas so that corporations could hire foreign students on the cheap. Whenever you hear someone complaining about the dearth of STEM students in the United States, that\u2019s because they were priced out of the market by bringing in foreign students. We complain again and again about how it\u2019s dangerous for national security not to have enough STEM students, but that was done intentionally to make it better for corporations. And of course the universities like it, too, because a lot of these foreign students are paying full tuition, far more than in-state tuition, while a lot of American students are getting some sort of financial aid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\">The whole thing is set up to make it impossible to disentangle the American establishment from Chinese Communist Party elites. It\u2019s not that difficult to see what the problems are, who has a stake in it, and how to try to start to disentangle these interests, to preserve the integrity and sovereignty of our great country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Ben Johnson:<\/b> You also point out the political component of this. Quite often, politicians or their families have their own financial deals \u2014 either above board, through investing in China or, in some cases, potentially <i>sub rosa<\/i> through alleged political kickbacks, as well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Lee Smith:<\/b> You might remember a few years ago, when the FBI was looking at Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) to see if Chinese officials or businessmen had contributed money to her political campaign. Of course, she was outraged, and the FBI was quite apologetic for suggesting any such thing. Look, Dianne Feinstein\u2019s husband, Richard Blum, was a multimillionaire and a lot of his money comes from his trade inside Communist China. So, the idea that somehow the Chinese businessmen needs to kick in $15,000 into Dianne Feinstein\u2019s campaign is ridiculous. It\u2019s about it\u2019s about who they\u2019re getting their money from. The high-profile figures from the Democratic Party\u2019s largest pools of donors \u2014 Big Tech, Wall Street, and Hollywood \u2014 are all tightly networked into China. Indirectly, much of that money comes from China. And that\u2019s why I refer to the Democratic Party, as it is structurally, as America\u2019s pro-CCP faction. It\u2019s not just what the Chinese are pouring into the system: It\u2019s what Americans are doing, thanks to their own financial and political relationships with Beijing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Ben Johnson:<\/b> You mention the work of Miranda Devine, whom I\u2019ve previously interviewed, who said Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop shows deep financial ties to the Chinese government. You also mention the Chamber of Commerce faction of the Republican Party \u2014 which, in many people\u2019s minds, could be surnamed Bush. Unfortunately, the problem of our elites\u2019 connections with the CCP is not confined simply to one family, or even exclusively one party.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Lee Smith:<\/b> It\u2019s not simply one family. People have done very important work to show that the Bidens are in the middle of this, taking a cut. But the reality is we\u2019re talking about an enormous establishment, right? It\u2019s not just one family. I\u2019ve written about this extensively. If you look at the Biden administration, you see all sorts of different connections, very unpleasant connections, whether it\u2019s the director of the CIA, the chief military strategist at the Pentagon, the secretary of state, the office of the director of national intelligence \u2014 all of these people have professional or financial relationships with the Chinese Communist Party. But the key, the most important thing is the structure. It\u2019s the networks. The Democratic Party is America\u2019s pro-China faction. This is certainly not to exculpate different Republicans, either historically or at present, like the Bush family \u2014 it is not to exculpate them at all. But what I think that our series, \u201cChina: The Enemy Within,\u201d does a great job at is showing the structure, showing this broad, disgusting cross-section of American industry, institutions. and individuals who are so tightly wound in to the CCP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Ben Johnson:<\/b> As you go into in your excellent documentary, one of those relationships involved the Wuhan Institute of Virology. You could argue, in many ways, the American taxpayers funded their own pandemic lockdown for the last two years. What can you tell us about that?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Lee Smith:<\/b> It appears the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci did, indeed, pay for gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. So if that\u2019s true, in effect, Dr. Fauci used American taxpayer funds for what turned into a weapon of mass destruction that poisoned Americans. And this is really emblematic of what\u2019s been going on for decades. Our establishment, our oligarchy, has seen China as its center of gravity, and they don\u2019t care how much this hurts Americans. This is the apotheosis of what has been going on now for decades.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Ben Johnson:<\/b> All of this brings to mind a phrase an old friend always used: \u201cThat\u2019s not selling out; that\u2019s buying in.\u201d For 20 years or longer, U.S. citizens have watched America\u2019s China policy unfold and said, \u201cOur China policy isn\u2019t working.\u201d Do we need a paradigm shift, not that our China policy is not working, but that it <i>is<\/i> working for the benefit of very small niche of Americans at the top of the socioeconomic pyramid?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Lee Smith:<\/b> Yes, absolutely. It\u2019s very hard to appeal to these people\u2019s patriotism, because they don\u2019t really care about this country \u2014 we\u2019ve seen that clearly over the last several years \u2014 and again, this is one of the things that COVID showcases perfectly. It\u2019s shocking the number of American institutional investing firms that are taking a position on Chinese biotech, which is basically going to building China\u2019s bio weapons program. Americans\u2019 money is being used for this, even after COVID. But I think the solutions are rather simple: You have to hit them where it hurts, and where it hurts these people is with money. You have to say, \u201cYou\u2019re not going to be able to use China\u2019s slave labor. You\u2019re not going to be able to get away with the environmental catastrophes that you get away with in China. We\u2019re going to legislate it, and we\u2019re going to regulate it. And you\u2019re not going to be able to afford the fines, and you\u2019re not going to want to do the jail time.\u201d The appeal cannot be, I believe, to human rights, to talk about the Uighur population in China. God bless these poor people, but they\u2019re the slave labor that a lot of American manufacturers use for their goods. It\u2019s disgraceful and disgusting, but unfortunately, you\u2019re not going to be able to get the attention of American companies by talking about the Uighurs right now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\">Americans also are wondering, \u201cWhat about us? We\u2019ve lost our jobs.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/trafficked-how-joe-bidens-open-border-policies-have-fueled-americas-fentanyl-epidemic\">What we have in exchange is fentanyl<\/a> \u2014 that\u2019s what the Chinese have given us in exchange for our jobs. To get the American people on side, we have to speak very directly and say, \u201cNo, no, we\u2019re going to make these people hurt. These people who have hurt you, we\u2019re going to hurt them. They\u2019re going to bring manufacturing back home, and they\u2019re going to pay for this.\u201d Policymakers are going to have to step up, and we are going to need people who speak directly about this, because there\u2019s a lot of donor money that doesn\u2019t want to hear about it. So, the appeal has to be made directly to the American people: \u201cHere\u2019s how I\u2019m going to help get our jobs back.\u201d This is what Donald Trump spoke about in 2016. That message resonated with the American public, and it will continue to resonate. And especially now, after the China virus has devastated the United States \u2014 in cooperation, of course, with our own public health bureaucrats.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Ben Johnson:<\/b> You\u2019ve given us a clear idea of what non-elites can do to take back our foreign policy, an idea the policies that need to be implemented in order to assure American strength, and the survival of so many people who\u2019ve been decimated by opioids. One of the ways that they can begin is through educating ourselves by watching \u201cChina: The Enemy Within.\u201d Thank you so much for producing it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Lee Smith:<\/b> Ben, thank you so much. It was a real thrill to work with The Daily Wire. I\u2019m looking at the results right now, and it\u2019s just such a thrill and such an honor to have been part of this great team. And I\u2019m sure that everyone is going to love the finished project, so thanks again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Script\"><b>Ben Johnson:<\/b> Well, thank you. Anyone who produces \u201cChina: The Enemy Within\u201d is a friend of the American people.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/episode\/1-fauci\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/episode\/1-fauci&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1645544321802000&#038;usg=AOvVaw3_k0kUmNF0hKZ_miGYs--5\">China: The Enemy Within<\/a> is a new Daily Wire original docuseries\u00a0about U.S. leaders allowing Chinese interests to overtake our policies, education, and culture. Stream the full series now exclusively at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/episode\/1-fauci\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/episode\/1-fauci&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1645544321802000&#038;usg=AOvVaw3_k0kUmNF0hKZ_miGYs--5\">DailyWire.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Best-selling author Lee Smith has produced The Daily Wire\u2019s new series, \u201cChina: The Enemy Within.\u201d Over his 30-year career, the veteran journalist has written numerous books and been published by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1331924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1331924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1331924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1331924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1331924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}