The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is dedicated to dealing with security threats to the U.S. homeland from outside forces. The speech by the Secretary of Homeland Security indicates that the Chinese Communist Party has created a terrorist-like threat to U.S. homeland security.
In a speech at the Dec. 21 event, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf said, “The authoritarian ideology of the Chinese Communist Party and the recent vicious actions of the Chinese Communist Party are intertwined.” He said that the department he leads will further refine the development of a strategy to address the CCP’s threat to the United States, possibly by further tightening U.S. visa restrictions on CCP members. In his speech, he also said the U.S. would be particularly welcoming to refugees from Hong Kong and would work with Taiwan to provide out-of-country entry clearance (pre-clearance) arrangements for those coming to the U.S. from Taiwan.
Speaking at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank, Wolf said Monday that the Trump administration has developed a response to the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party and will build a Strategic Action Plan to Counter the People’s Republic of China based on the 2017 U.S. National Security Strategy Report and the U.S. Strategic Approach to the People’s Republic of China in 2020. (Strategic Action Plan to Counter the People’s Republic of China), noting that the report will be released soon. He said screening procedures for individuals with access to sensitive information and technology will be strengthened, and Chinese students and researchers associated with the civil-military integration strategy will be banned from entering the country.
Earlier, the U.S. State Department announced on March 3 that it would restrict travel to the U.S. for Communist Party members and their immediate family members by reducing the validity of B1/B2 visas issued to Communist Party members and their families to one month from the previous 10 years. Wolfe described the Department of Homeland Security, which he leads, as cooperating with the State Department’s initiative, which is working to limit the period of entry into the United States for CCP members to one month, even though some of them may have been granted visas valid for 10 years in the past. We are also working with the State Department to consider further limiting the visa validity of CCP members,” he said. We are also using all possible tools to prevent Chinese citizens from concealing their CCP membership status, or evading related disclosure requirements.”
Wolf said President Trump’s message in May this year announcing a ban on Chinese nationals with ties to the Communist Party’s military entering the United States on student and scholar visas has had a deterrent effect. We banned Chinese students and researchers involved in China’s civil-military integration strategy from entering the country,” he said. The Chinese side read the message and tens of thousands of Chinese students have left to avoid detection and further action.” He added, “As these individuals left our country, we (DHS) conducted additional screening and vetting of them to identify critical counterintelligence threats and to prevent the theft of important information.” During the speech, Wolf also said that DHS will be particularly welcoming to refugee claims from Hong Kong residents in fiscal year 2021. The U.S. Department of State announced the Refugee Acceptance Program on Sept. 30, which for the first time includes Hong Kong on the list of countries and territories with special allocations for hosting refugees, setting Hong Kong residents apart from the many asylum-seeking applicants who can receive additional assistance in the United States.
Wolfe described that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is also communicating with Taiwan to process an application for Taipei Taoyuan Airport to join the U.S. offshore pre-clearance program. It is reported that if the U.S. and Taiwan reach an agreement on the advance clearance program, the U.S. will set up the first overseas entry screening point in the Asia-Pacific region in Taiwan, and travelers to the U.S. will complete their entry screening to the U.S. at Taoyuan Airport. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen expressed her willingness to join the program last year, but the arrangement would spark discontent from Beijing. In addition, Wolf noted that the Department of Homeland Security is also coordinating with U.S. partners to protect sensitive information about Americans and prevent the Chinese Communist Party from trying to use the 5G Internet infrastructure for intelligence infiltration. He said, “We will be issuing a commercial advisory warning against the use of data services and equipment from companies associated with the People’s Republic of China.” He also made a point of emphasizing that the Department of Homeland Security is conducting a review of Chinese manufacturers such as TCL Corp.
The report said that U.S. researchers revealed in November that China’s TCL Corp. had included a “backdoor” program in its smart TVs that exposed the file systems of these smart TVs, which are connected to WiFi wireless networks, to remote control by third parties. Third parties can access their TVs’ browsing directory program files. Wolfe said TCL competed in the global electronics market with the support of the Chinese Communist Party to become the third largest television manufacturer in the world.
The speech concluded with Wolfe stating, “The ideology of the CCP and the recent vicious actions of the CCP are linked. This has enabled them to coerce their entire population, many of whom are innocent and unwilling, to launch attacks against the United States and other Western countries.” He said, “They simultaneously attack the legitimacy of our political system, undermine the strength of our economy, and directly harm or kill American citizens.” He suggested that “our ill-advised belief in the last century that the communist threat is behind us is not a ghost of the past. Today, it continues to stalk freedom and power in the form of the Chinese Communist Party.” He emphatically asserts that “this is a clear and present danger that we cannot ignore for the good of our country, our way of life and our civilization.”
According to Wolf, “To succeed in this fight, we must continue to focus on and respond harshly to Beijing’s attacks on the United States, including economic espionage, visa fraud and privacy theft. When the Chinese Communist Party uses every aspect of its society to attack our country, we must also mobilize our entire society to respond. Every American business, every media organization, every citizen and every interested party must recognize and protect against this threat. With your help, America will not be the next victim of a new era of Chinese Communism.”
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