The CCP & US Policy on Chinese Immigration and Espionage, Part III--Epilogue.

This is an epilogue written in the months since the original article. Part I with the original article is here, Part II with the editor's comments is here.Increasingly, Chinese outside of China are expressing feelings of “uncomfortableness” about their perceived foreignness. The trade war is said to be inflaming stereotypes and skepticism about the intent and commitment of ethnic Chinese outside of China to their host/home countries. Governments in Australia, New Zealand, and the US have come under attack by Chinese and other rights groups claiming that they are enacting policies that are increasing racism and inciting hysteria by treating all ethnic Chinese as if they were spies of the CCP and the PRC. This is truly unfortunate, as they all certainly are not all spies, and should have both the same rights and protections as others--namely innocent until proven guilty.My wife is from China and I have children that were born in Hong Kong and my family of 6 has lived in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan for years. The disparaging remarks made about ethnic Chinese in general is hurtful, ignorant, inappropriate and misdirected. All governments, including China and the US, have the right to protect their sovereignty and security. At the same time complex multivariate issues concerning race need to be handled delicately and thoughtfully (i.e. not via twitter).My personal opinion is that until last month there has been far too little criticism leveled at the CCP and the PRC government for attempting to literally turn all ethnic Chinese into objects of concern for foreign governments. The growing fear of ethnic Chinese, not just China’s government/CCP, is the result of a decades-long conscious United Front campaign to merge the concepts of "Chinese people", "Chinese history", "China" (the country), the "Chinese government", and the "CCP" into one singular entity. (The recent campaign in western China claiming that “we’re all Chinese,” is just the latest example.) Practically, this means that criticizing the policies of the Chinese Government is (instrumentally) interpreted by the CCP as being racist. Not accepting the CCP’s claim of 5000 years of continuous history is similarly read as being an enemy to both China and “the truth”. Having opinions that differ from official PRC policies on any one of numerous political issues (Tibet, Taiwan, Tiananmen, South China Sea, South Tibet, Falun Gong, et al) is interpreted as wanting to split China, being racist and "offending the Chinese people" (every one of them no matter where they live—how is that even possible?). Even my suggestion here that the CCP has actively promoted a unified and limited definition of Chineseness, which has been academically documented for years now, has been called out (see previous post) and will likely again be labeled as paranoid and racist.As recently as August, China has officially requested that all ethnic Chinese around the world support the official positions of the CCP (speech by Zhao Leji, Aug 29, 2018, paraphrase: call on ethnic Chinese, including citizens of other nations, to support Beijing’s national interests and President Xi Jinping’s Chinese Dream for national rejuvenation; SCMP 25/09/18). The WSJ noted,

“Beijing targets the Chinese-American community in particular, the report says, viewing them as members of a Chinese diaspora with an “allegiance to the so-called Motherland.” Not only does this impede Chinese Americans’ freedom of speech, it also creates the risk that they will be viewed suspiciously within the U.S. even though few may accept Beijing’s directives, the report says. The report urges against demonizing any group of Americans or visitors to the country.”

Typically, when anyone does not agree with the call to arms, the CCP claims that the offender is either “forgetting their roots” or being racist—as if the CCP was the sole determiner of all things Chinese. Indeed, that is their position and desire. Dictators are like that.I love China and I love the Chinese people, particularly my own family and extended family, many of whom still live there. I have spent decades of my life in China and Taiwan and have many friends in each place. But I do not make my political decisions based on where my wife was originally from or the ethnicity of my children, to do so would indeed be racist. But the CCP is asking for just that, pressuring ethnic Chinese and others to specifically associate ethnicity with nationality and a single political party with "Chineseness". Declining the CCP’s request on intellectual, historical, or any other grounds is tantamount to being labeled a race-traitor to or an enemy of China. This strict positioning unfortunately reinforces the perceptions that China is indeed attempting to weaponizing Chinese citizens abroad--enlisting them, regardless of their personal political proclivities, into the CCP's cause. How should foreign governments responded to the massive scale of this relatively new behavior? Attempting to document the source of the concern, namely the CCP, is a start.