Congress should examine China's ties to the US protection business

At a press convention earlier this month, President Joe Biden raised eyebrows when he stated , “Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with different nations is worthy of being checked out. Whether or not or not he's doing something inappropriate — I’m not suggesting that,” he stated, “I’m suggesting it’s price being checked out, and that’s all I’ll say.”

Biden is true, and it’s nothing private in opposition to Musk. In reality, the president’s feedback weren’t actually in regards to the SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter head in any respect. Slightly, they have been about making certain the USA retains a broadly constant, air-tight protection protect in opposition to one in all America’s main adversaries: the Individuals’s Republic of China.

Whereas it’s not essentially problematic for America’s nationwide safety, the richest man on the earth — who has met with CCP management and brought over $1 billion in loans from China, which is residence to Tesla’s second-largest market — has grow to be closely related to the communist nation. Musk’s enterprise ventures have thrust him into an important nationwide safety function, and it’s honest for the federal authorities to fret about what the bold and predatory CCP would possibly be capable to get its palms on with its shut proximity to him. Simply this week, for instance, a report discovered that China is emulating SpaceX’s designs to construct a reusable mega-rocket.

That’s why Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT), a senior member of the Home Intelligence Committee, is in search of confidential briefings on any vulnerabilities, whereas Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the rating member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, additionally launched laws that might guarantee U.S. contractors’ CCP connections don’t intervene with America’s geopolitical objectives.

Perhaps Musk is unintentionally creating vulnerabilities for the U.S.; possibly he isn’t. However the nation could be remiss if it didn’t interact in accountable due diligence to search out out for positive someway.

On the similar time, nevertheless, this dialog shouldn’t begin and finish with Elon Musk . It needs to be intensive and lengthen to all of the U.S.’s nationwide safety contractors.

On the subject of protection, China’s espionage operation is second-to-none. The nation is doing every little thing from planting backdoors in our expertise to having CCP-trained spies work with and develop relational ties to the American nationwide safety influencers from whom it seeks to steal protection secrets and techniques.

This downside is simply getting worse. A latest Heart for Strategic & Worldwide Research (CSIS) survey discovered 160 publicly-reported cases of Chinese language espionage from 2000-2021 — 24% occurred between 2000-2009, whereas 76% occurred between 2010-2021. If that’s not sufficient to persuade one of many rising scope of this downside, contemplate that the U.S. simply charged many with Chinese language espionage, whereas simply days in the past, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Southern District of California sentenced a former U.S. Military helicopter pilot with greater than 20 years of navy service and expertise as a protection contractor for appearing as an agent of China.

FBI Director Chris Wray put it finest : “The best long-term menace to our nation’s data and mental property, and to our financial vitality, is the counterintelligence and financial espionage menace from China.”

This downside isn’t going away, so Biden is doing the suitable factor by following Republican intelligence officers’ lead in addressing it head-on.

As Washington appears to be like to proceed bulletproofing the U.S. protection business from China’s espionage machine within the subsequent Congress, the congressional intelligence committees ought to start holding hearings and briefings to deepen its understanding of this downside, whereas the White Home ought to instruct the Division of Protection and all related businesses to vet its contractors in ways in which guarantee their relationships with adversarial nations don’t pose any nationwide safety dangers. It’s what’s essential to maintain the American individuals secure and the CCP at bay.

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Michael J. Pappas is a former U.S. consultant for New Jersey.