Christian Whiton is the author of "Smart Power: Between Diplomacy and War." He is a senior fellow at the Center for the National Interest, and former State Department senior advisor in the Bush and Trump administrations.
Federal Newswire
What were the core ideas behind your book and how does it apply to China?
Christian Whiton
"Smart Power" is something I thought about a lot when I was working at the State Department. The first time in the Bush administration where it seemed that the dialogue often came down to either you're going to use the extremes of statecraft of full kinetic warfare or just talk. It was either do nothing or go to a full court press of tariffs and disengagement.
It seems like there are a lot of things you can do between those two extremes. You can apply economic measures, including tariffs. You can use things like foreign assistance, you can use things like political warfare, which I would argue is something we used to be particularly good at as a country. In fact, the document that brought our country into existence, the Declaration of Independence, could be described as an act of political warfare that was intended more to affect political conditions.
[What] we're taught in high school…is, US wars, [we] seem to win them all up until the Department of Defense was created. After which we seem to either tie or lose them all.
There's so much more that China is doing to our disadvantage [and] to its own advantage, and it's a bigger issue than just whether or not you're going to have war in the Taiwan strait. In fact, we're in a much bigger and more complicated conflict.
Federal Newswire
How has China waged political warfare?
Christian Whiton
Well in World War I, Britain had a full blown political warfare executive. It sat alongside the Special Operations Executive which was more sabotage [and] infiltration, things like that. But it came down to what was high tech at the time which was radio broadcasting. Unfortunately for better or worse, probably for worse, [it] still dominates a lot of our thinking but it was very innovative at the time.
You had white broadcasting which was official over non-clandestine broadcasts. But you also had black broadcasts or gray broadcasts. The distinction varies depending on who you're speaking to but basically you'd be broadcasting from outside an occupied territory saying that you were inside that territory.
Sometimes you'd talk up the resistance, sometimes that would be factual information, sometimes it would be an exaggeration. There were other elements of it during the war of course, Tokyo Rose is famous for what the Japanese were doing. Directed at US forces in the Pacific. It was pretty ham-fisted.
The United States created the voice of America during the war. I think of the bigger picture, which is how do I put my opponent on the back foot [and] sometimes that involves putting my own best foot forward.
When we have problems, and we do, we actually can resolve them. We have a representative government, we have a government that's accountable to the people. We are part of this experiment that started two hundred and fifty years ago that's been one of the greatest liberators.
But it's not just information and news and broadcasting, which is important. It's also what your government does, what your State Department and DoD diplomats are saying. The CCP is going to be there forever, and we may need to get tougher on it.
Federal Newswire
How might China’s use of smart power affect Americans?
Christian Whiton
Beijing's use of political warfare against the United States starts with a long period at the United Nations back when that was a little more relevant…They essentially just abstained from everything [while] they were a member of the Security Council…That's just one example of convincing people they're not that much of a threat.
This was of course critical in the 1990 s and of course you know the CCP was different in the 1990’s. Xi Xinping was not in charge. I think it was probably a worthy experiment to see if economic liberalization would lead to political liberalization. Some of the skeptics of the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China, who since have been vindicated, I think were a little bit surprised at the duration of time where China did follow some of its promises in Hong Kong.
We see that here with the infiltration of American Universities and corporations.
They got caught stealing from US Department of Energy labs, and [stealing] nuclear weapons designs in the late 90’s. And there have been rumors of successful counterintelligence operations by the Chinese against US intelligence sources within China.
It's been a little different with them than with the Soviet Union. It's less deep penetration of the US government with sleeper agents who are ideologically motivated or who have been cultivated because they're disgruntled.
Instead of a small number of high level sources, it's thousands and thousands of people at think tanks, universities, and corporations; some of whom probably know they're working for the Chinese and some of whom may not, or may just think that the grant they got or the favor that they had paid was just because they're a great person. Long story short is that it's been a subtle but comprehensive mechanism.
Federal Newswire
What are some key policy areas of focus for policy makers?
Christian Whiton
Without military power, if Ronald Reagan had said tear down this wall, Marxism, Leninism would not have been consigned to the ash heap of history. If he had given support to Polish solidarity, which was contesting the dominance of the communist state in Poland, without actually building up the US military, then the Cold War probably wouldn't have ended on terms that were as advantageous and pro-freedom as they were.
This is something some of our diplomats get and others don't.
As far as truly beating China. it's not just doing a number of things right. It's also getting things right in the United States. I think that's important.
There was this big change in 2016 related to trade. People who were negotiating the trade agreements said they had an easier time with Canada and Mexico because Trump was willing to walk away from those. [He] almost wanted NAFTA to go away and not be replaced with anything so our negotiators could say to China and to Canada and Mexico “excuse me, listen you really need to sign this agreement because the alternative is not something more advantageous to you.”
The supply chain is in such complete disarray we're not going to end any of the tariffs that were put in place in order to get China to the negotiating table. So if you go forward to the Biden administration, They haven't eliminated the 25% tariffs that Trump put on about half of what's imported from China. They talked up that they were going to produce a big China policy. That's something the [Biden] administration has not done.
We haven't had an explanation from the Secretary of State or Defense or I think it would actually warrant hearing from the President himself what the policy is on China.
Bob Lightheiser has talked up strategic decoupling. That makes a lot of sense. So it's not that we're going to have an immediate traumatic break with China, which would be hard since we're so dependent on them for a lot of things. But over time…we could shift away.
But you know looking at all of these things, tying them all together is just something that the administration hasn't done.
We really do need to hear it from President Biden. There's still time if he wants to tighten up, especially after this attention on the balloon.
Federal Newswire
What can companies or state officials do to help address China?
Christian Whiton
Boeing was talking up the partnership it has with China's big aircraft manufacturing as recently as November. You have American finance still chasing Lucy's football in China. Those are things that could change without government forcing them to change.
The thing that individuals can do is bring attention and pressure on positive news stories and negative news stories that influence the situation. Negative things like what's going on in the Hong Kong trial of 47 people, like Cardinal Zen, the elderly retired Catholic official who you know just says very simple things in favor of democracy and keeping promises and has the Chinese government terrified. Or Jimmy Lai, [a] publisher that China has locked up because he ran a pro-democracy newspaper that was very, very popular.
In Hong Kong emphasizing that those people are being persecuted and there's not that much the West is doing about it.
Then the positive part, like Taiwan. It is actually an asset, or should be or can be, because it's an example of what a free ethnically Chinese people can accomplish. This idea isn’t just something terrible with the CCP. We have to manage it.
Federal Newswire
Do you think social media and tech companies, who are blocked from doing business in China, can help the U.S. create a more transparent and accountable world?
Christian Whiton
It should, but this is where I differ from those who say free markets will cure everything. Tech does need to be pushed in that direction.
Silicon Valley has been very much in bed with China. They [enjoy] the allure of this huge market of growing affluence and you know if you get too deep into China…you're going to essentially lose ownership of your intellectual property.
Universities go into this category too. They're getting grants from China, sometimes directly, but [often] indirectly through thinly-veiled sources.
Federal Newswire
How do you think the U.S. can gain energy and refining independence from China?
Christian Whiton
I'm in the minority in that I think the best thing Congress and the administration can do, which they're not going to do incidentally, is find a way to cut a deal with Russia and drop sanctions on Russian energy.
The last two years have been a huge benefit to China, because the United States has made it harder to produce hydrocarbons here, even though we have this abundance.
There's a pipeline called Power of Siberia and they're laying additional pipelines either directly from Russia to China or across Mongolia/ The sanctions we've put on Russia have given huge discounts for those who are still willing to buy Russian oil and it's not just Russia. It's India and other countries in the global south.
We might ask ourselves [if] this policy is really having [an] affect on Russia's economy and military, and what it’s doing for China given such a great deal.
We need a clear China policy. We need an energy policy, especially if we’re going to invest in pipelines, terminals, ships, or refineries, which are very capital intensive. We have to have some confidence that we're not going to have politicians in this country that want to kill businesses.
Federal Newswire
Could we use the entertainment industry to help utilize smart power in the government?
Christian Whiton
Yeah that's a great idea. At the State [Department] there's something called the Global Engagement Center. After I left it seems like they decided their job was to actually go after fake news in America. Which actually it turns out to [just] be news they don't like. I'm exaggerating a little bit but the State Department is not up to this.
The US information agency ran Voice of America. That was shut down after the end of the Cold War. The CIA got out of the political warfare business probably in the ‘70’s. They may have had a little bit of a renaissance in the ‘80’s but not much. Actually it was the CIA and the Catholic Church that did a lot of the clandestine stuff in Poland [that] CIA took credit for. Subsequently they deserve a little of credit, but not a lot.
It would really have to come from the White House. It would require Presidential leadership. It would be less clandestine and covert in the sense of government, but [more] clarity saying we don't expect, nor do we hope for the CCP to remain in power indefinitely.
China is a government that's afraid of its own people. Trying to rally people around the globe against the [Chinese Communist] party, I think is the best that we can hope for.
