U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger cautions democracies to be wary of China’s actions and to resist their efforts to spread disinformation and undermine Western democracies. Pottinger stressed that the Chinese Communist Party’s united front activities are quietly unfolding around the world and are changing Western minds and Western democracies in subtle ways.
On Friday (Oct. 23), Mr. Bomin delivered a speech in Chinese at Policy Exchange, a leading British think tank, titled “Your Honesty: On China’s Relationship with the World. In the age of information networks, democracies are experiencing a challenge from authoritarian states, Bomin said. He argued that the country’s economic strength is not the only factor that will determine the outcome of this battle.
The U.S. official, who spent many years as a journalist in China, said that because authoritarian regimes are able to control and mobilize vast resources, their ability to spread disinformation and influence Western public opinion and perceptions cannot be underestimated.
Reviewing the history of the Communist Civil War, Bomin said that the CCP’s victory over the Kuomintang was due not only to its military power, but also to its united front work. Through ideological infiltration and information manipulation, the CCP undermined the KMT’s power base by co-opting and bribing its elite, and eventually won power. Today, Bomin says, the CCP has used the same set of united front tactics it used against the KMT against the West. They extensively gather information on Western citizens, recruit and corrupt Western elites, and exert influence on Western citizens.
According to Boehme, the CCP has invested enormous resources in its global united front work, with more than four times the number of U.S. State Department personnel.
Boehme graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in Chinese studies. After graduation, he entered journalism and worked as a China correspondent for Reuters and the Wall Street Journal, living and working in China for nearly 10 years. He later transitioned to the Marine Corps, where he gained experience in national security.
In 2017, Bomin joined the U.S. national security team and participated in drafting the National Security Strategy document, which identified China as a strategic competitor of the United States and played an important role in shaping the U.S. government’s policy toward China.
On May 4, 2020, on the occasion of the 101st anniversary of China’s May Fourth Movement, Mr. Bomin participated in an online seminar on U.S.-China relations at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, and delivered a speech in Chinese entitled “The Spirit of China’s ‘May Fourth’ from an American Perspective”. This was the first time in U.S. history that a senior White House official gave a full-length speech in Chinese, and it resonated well with the Chinese-speaking world, especially the Chinese public.
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