America has a weapon that scares the daylights out of Xi Jinping. Nukes? F35s? Attack submarines? No. Tariffs? Trade and technology sanctions? No.
It’s Public Law 117-263 — passed by Congress on December 23, 2022, known also the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023.
Section 6501, in particular, is Xi’s kryptonite or worse. The title says it all: “Report on Wealth and Corrupt Activities of the Leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.” And it’s clear Xi and his colleagues are a focal point for scrutiny.
The law states that “Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of National Intelligence, in consultation with the Secretary of State, shall make available to the public an unclassified report on the wealth and corrupt activities of the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.”
The measure specifies figures including “the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party” — that’s Xi — “and senior leadership officials in the Central Committee, the Politburo, the Politburo Standing Committee, and any other regional Party Secretaries.”
These are the people that matter in the CCP hierarchy. More than any other action the American government can take, this effects the CCP’s top leadership directly. Apply sanctions and tariffs, and Xi and the CCP elite will gladly have regular Chinese absorb the hardship and punishment, limitlessly.
But explaining away the CCP leadership’s immense wealth — to include overseas bank accounts, businesses, real estate and relatives with “green cards” is tricky — and dangerous — especially while Xi is telling all other Chinese to “eat bitterness.”
The 600 million Chinese who live on US$5 a day and the huge number who live on less might not be so understanding. This corruption — preternaturally part of any communist party — could even bring down the CCP.
Corruption was a major reason that Free China’s Nationalist, or Kuomintang, regime lost to Mao’s communists in 1949, ceding the mainland and fleeing to Taiwan — and Xi knows it.
In 2012, Bloomberg and the New York Times reported on CCP elite wealth — to include Xi’s own relatives. The response was furious — more than anything this writer has seen in 40 years. Bloomberg folded — fearing for its business in the PRC. And the New York Times rolled over as well.
But it showed what’s doable — and exposed a fatal CCP vulnerability. The American intelligence community, with its $100 billion annual budget, can presumably do even better than a small team of reporters.
Public Law 117-263, Section 6501, ordered the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, and the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to get to work and produce a report — within a year. It was due December 23, 2023 — and still hasn’t appeared. Haines and Blinken have moved on to their next sinecures.
Things may change, however, now that a new administration is in place. Section 6501 was, in fact, pushed through by Senator Marco Rubio — who is now Secretary of State. And President Trump’s pick for DNI, Tulsi Gabbard, could prove to be made of sterner stuff than the former bookstore owner, Haines.
Once it’s out, the Trump administration might even give Xi a hand with his touted anti-corruption campaigns and start placing liens on bank accounts, real estate and canceling visas and green cards.
And get America’s partners to join in. The United Kingdom, Australia and Canada are equally attractive bolt-holes for China’s communist elites to park their wealth and a relative or two.
Yes, the Trump administration does have to rebuild the military, tighten the flow of capital and technology to the PRC, and end suicidal dependence on Chinese manufacturing and supply chains. Even to the point of decoupling.
But it should also do the one that “makes things personal” for Xi and the CCP leadership. Carry out Public Law 223-117, Section 6501 — and expose it to high heaven — and keep exposing it. It’s long overdue.
Colonel Newsham is a retired United States Marine and a former American diplomat with many years of experience in Japan. He is a senior fellow with both the Center for Security Policy and the Yorktown Institute in the United States, and a senior fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies in Japan. He is the author of “When China Attacks: A Warning to America.”
This article first appeared on the New York Sun and is republished with the author’s permission. Read the original here.
Implement the law by all means. Xi has cleaned up a lot of corruption already, and Newsham will only be helping him recover corrupt money sent out of China.
Poor grant. Didn’t learn the first time. None of his articles have learnt anything from history, even the history of a few years ago. Living off the glory of Afghanistan, Vietnam and Korea. Now he’s gotten so irrelevant he’s joining the trump tariff bandwagon. I suppose you can still make a living selling a turd as a bar of gold. Too many ex military living of the turd that is the U.S. military glory of wars they have never won over the last 70 years. This guy should write about India. Tell us how the turd all over the street isn’t really there or the stench in the air doesn’t exist, and it’s all peachy.
lol four slop articles from Grant just within the month of February and we’re not even halfway though, someone isn’t sleeping soundly with current trends in Asia Pacific
CCP, china’s COMMUNISTS etc etc – wtfish is wrong with asiatimes to allow this kind of infantile articles on its pages – come on, AT, you can do better than this and if this author is really honest about talking about corruption, plz first take a look at what elon musk is doing now … thank you …
What is wrong with this guy? He wants to start a war with China. He should know better. Remember the Korean War? How many GIs died? Try talking with China. You might learn something.
….and to think, Xi Jinping took payoffs from Sheldon Adelson, who birth-funded Trump China Bashing era!
So how about the corruption in the US deep state and federal bureaucracy?