Thread by @usacsmret

China Covertly Subverting Trump Reelection freebeacon.com/national-secur…

China is conducting an aggressive disinformation and influence campaign designed to block the re-election of President Trump in 2020, according to a dissident Chinese billionaire who until recently was close to senior Beijing leaders.

The campaign has been underway since the 2018 mid-term election and involves enlisting pro-China elements inside the United States to end the Trump administration after four years.

According to Guo, who has known current Chinese President Xi Jinping for more than 10 years, the anti-Trump influence operation is being directed by Xi and Wang through the Communist Party of China (CCP) National Security Commission, a high-level body created in 2013

"For the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the security committee has given very clear instructions that it is not permissible for Trump to win the 2020 election," Guo said speaking through an interpreter.

By deploying its intelligence and influence resources in the United States, the CCP is working to exploit the harsh political divisions between Democrats and Republicans in seeking to unseat the Trump administration.

"President Trump has already caused a lot of damage to the CCP, so they have declared he will not be allowed to have another four years in power," the dissident said.

Chinese interference into American politics was first disclosed by Trump in September and a month later in a speech by Vice President Mike Pence.

Pence stated that the Beijing political interference employs a whole-of-government approach involving political, economic, military tools, and propaganda to interfere in both policy and politics.

"To put it bluntly, President Trump’s leadership is working; and China wants a different American president," Pence said in a speech Oct. 4.

Guo said interference during the mid-term elections targeted farms states in the Midwest and sought to turn them against Trump's tougher trade policies toward Beijing.
One example was paid Chinese propaganda supplements in newspapers such as the Des Moines Register.

Other means involve dispatching Chinese intelligence operatives to the United States for the influence operations and utilizing networks of pro-China agents—Americans and others who will do Beijing's bidding.

Those organizations taking part include the Ministry of State Security, the civilian spy agency, the People's Liberation Army intelligence units, and the United Front Work Department, a quasi-intelligence unit that conducts influence operations.

"I must tell you that you that you need to heed these four weapons because they pose a very real threat," Guo said.
The first weapon to be used against Trump is the use Wall Street financial leaders.

Wang is a close associate of former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, a former Goldman Sachs executive, who is viewed as one of the more supportive Wall Street influencers who favor unfettered American business engagement with China.

The second political weapon in the anti-Trump campaign are those political leaders and lobbyists in Washington who can be enlisted to oppose Trump. "There are quite a few of these individuals who have been corrupted by the CCP for many years … and they will be the No. 2 weapon,"

American mainstream news and social media outlets, many of which have been shown to be hostile toward Trump, are a third tool in the Chinese campaign.

"Media such as Google, Facebook, and newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and even the national broadcast channels will be unwilling to challenge the Chinese Communist Party in coming to the defense of President Trump," Guo said.

Many news industry owners have interests in China and therefore will be reluctant to counter Chinese influence operations targeting the president, he added.

A fourth line of attack is China's effort to coopt the overseas Chinese and Asian-Americans, groups that have grown in political power through increased wealth and subsequent political donations and voting power.

Guo noted one example of the power of the pro-China activities in the United States involved Beijing's apparent use of people who were directed to clash with pro-Taiwan supporters in New York earlier this month.

"We need to remember that for all four of these weapons, the real controlling power is the National Security Commission." According to Guo, Chinese leaders have assumed mafia-like power in China through Xi and Wang and an associated group of between five and 10 Chinese families.

"We must know that the 2020 presidential election is not really an election campaign between the Republican Party or the Democratic Party," Guo said. "In fact, it is actually a campaign between President Trump and Wang Qishan and Xi Jinping."

Since he began speaking out against high-level corruption in China on social media and in online broadcasts, English-language news media have called Guo worse names, including alleging falsely he is a thief, a rapist, and a liar.

Guo, however, said he was shocked by a Wall Street Journal article that alleged he was a spy but failed to report that he had been sued numerous times by pro-China entities and either won the suits in court, or saw them withdrawn under legal challenges.

According to a report by congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Guo was the target of an unprecedented Chinese government campaign to discredit him and force his return to China.

Guo said he believes the time is right to bring about an end to Communist Party rule in China.
"Ninety-nine point nine percent of the Chinese people in China, including the 90 million members of the CCP, want to see the disappearance of that Communist Party," he said

"In fact the Chinese Communist Party only serves to facilitate the top 10 to 20 people of those five to 10 families in China. So when those people are taken down from power, the Communist Party will no longer exist."