The U.S. State Department on Friday barred entry into the United States by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) united front work officials or those involved in united front work activities, and earlier the U.S. drastically restricted visas for CCP members and their immediate family members from 10 years to one month. Some analysts believe that the U.S. is taking concrete, practical steps to distinguish between the CCP, which rules China as a single party, and the Chinese people at large.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement Friday noting that the bans include CCP officials and individuals active in the United Front Work Department who “used or threatened to use physical violence, stole and leaked private information, engaged in espionage, and disrupted or maliciously interfered with U.S. domestic politics, academic freedom, personal privacy, or business activities” to “co-opt and coerce” local U.S. officials, Chinese communities abroad, academics, and other civil society organizations to advance the authoritarian narrative and policy preferences of the CCP.
Earlier this week, the U.S. State Department issued new rules restricting travel to the U.S. by members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and their immediate family members, and reducing the validity of visas for CCP members and their immediate family members to one month from the previous 10 years and limited to single-entry travel. Washington authorities explained that the Communist Party has been trying to “influence Americans through propaganda, economic blackmail, and other ulterior motives,” and that the move was intended to protect the United States from “malicious influence.
A few weeks ago, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released new immigration policy guidelines that prohibit members of the Communist Party and other totalitarian political parties from seeking permanent resident status and citizenship unless specifically permitted.
The regime in Beijing is sensitive to and angry about the U.S. measures against Communist Party officials and their immediate family members, and Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Friday reprised an earlier statement by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that the Communist Party and the Chinese people are “deeply connected and inseparable. She was mocked by netizens for saying that when the U.S. targets the Communist Party, which seeks to rule China permanently, they think of the people they usually boss around. Zhao Lijian’s earlier tweet about the people’s willingness to stop the gunfire for the CCP was met with strong criticism.
Recognizing that this was a very serious move by the CCP leadership, CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping specifically stated on September 3: “The Chinese people will never accept any attempt by anyone or any force to separate the Chinese Communist Party from the Chinese people and put them at odds with each other.”
According to some analysts, the fact that China’s top brass are so sensitive to U.S. initiatives and readily accuse the U.S. of fomenting “fish-water relations” shows that the U.S. is targeting the weaknesses of the Beijing regime: today’s CCP is already a power elite, an interest group, and a people who cannot choose who rules them. It’s as solid as the authorities make it out to be. In addition, the number of members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) sounds huge, more than 90 million, but in fact there are many opportunists among them who are desperate to climb up the ranks, and very few who really believe in the so-called communism. Therefore, the Chinese authorities are very wary and concerned about the high-profile distinction between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people that the U.S. is making every day and the accompanying policies and measures.
Recent Comments