Native Chinese scholar and author Helen Raleigh said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) finally “complied” with the Trump administration, after a raid by federal agents at the consulate in Houston, Texas, suspected of harboring spies.
Raleigh, an immigration policy researcher at the Centennial Institute in Colorado, told Fox News that the White House’s aggressive stance has been a wake-up call for the Chinese government and is not something its officials are used to dealing with. .
“The CCP believes in the law of the jungle. ‘It could do the right thing,'” he explained. “So the Trump administration is the first foreign administration that the CCP knows of and also believes in jungle law and is not afraid to confront the CCP. People in the Trump administration are willing to bear those costs.”
He added: “We can see that since the consulate closed, they knew that China would retaliate, but they are willing to risk that no one else in the world is willing to run. So the CCP has finally met its match.”
US authorities opened the doors of the Chinese consulate in Houston on Friday and took over the building shortly after Chinese authorities left the facility on the order of the federal government.
After the Chinese were ordered to evict, the Houston Fire Department responded to fires in the building’s courtyard, which turned out to be an effort to destroy documents. Chinese authorities refused to allow entry of first responders to extinguish the fires, Fox 26 reported in Houston.
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“There are a number of measures that the Trump administration has taken, particularly last week, almost daily, related to new sanctions and new policy changes against the CCP,” said Raleigh. “But the most important news was the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston and then China retaliated, closing the United States Consulate in Chengdu.”
He then quoted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s speech on China this week and said he is spearheading decades-long policy change that championed the economic liberation of the Chinese people.
“He identified the problem in the relationship between the United States and China, which are the same problems that China has with the rest of the world,” Raleigh continued. “China has a very different political and ideological system, especially compared to free nations like the United States. For the past few decades, free nations mistakenly thought that as long as they continue to engage with China, with the CCP, eventually with economic liberation, the The CCP would change. The Chinese system would become a more liberal and open society like ours. Secretary Pompeo in his speech acknowledged that this assumption was wrong and has been wrong for several decades. “
She added: “This was not her first speech on the subject and it is probably one of the only things people on both sides can agree on. That the past approach has failed. Sec. Pompeo summarized the policy of the Trump administration in China in two words: – “induce change.” They want to induce a change in the CCP’s behavior. “
Management wants to accomplish this goal in two steps at the same time, Raleigh explained. The first step was to become very conflictive with the CCP in terms of trade negotiations, espionage charges, alteration of visa policy and closure of the consulate, all of which represented a “very dramatic and serious step.”
“They have basically matched the intensity of Chinese aggressiveness,” he added. The second step would be to see China return to the negotiating table on several important issues.
Raleigh also referred to how previous U.S. administrations were unwilling to bear the cost of a confrontation with China until President Trump’s latest push.
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“For the past four decades, China has been aggressively pushing the limits. It is determined. They want to become the world’s only power and change the world order to adapt to China’s ideology,” he said. “Past administrations, from George W. Bush to Barack Obama, worried about the cost of the confrontation, on the economic and military front. The cost of facing them has become much higher now than past administrations, as well as other countries, they didn’t. I want to deal with that. Until the Trump administration [got involved].
“China is so powerful today, no matter what strategy the United States chooses, it will come at a cost,” added Raleigh. “There is no way to avoid a cost. So it really is about how much we are willing to bear. And keep in mind that when China and the United States face each other, the costs of China’s bears as well. Both countries they need to calculate how much of a cost they are willing to bear. “
Marisa Schultz of Fox News contributed to this report.
