What Happened to China This Election Cycle?

Election Day is upon us and there’s a big issue that hasn’t gotten much attention: China. 

Perhaps the closest we’ve come this cycle was Tim Walz flip flopping about being in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square massacre. But despite the lack of focus on China this go-around, there’s been good progress on several fronts towards strengthening the U.S. position against its Asian adversary.  

First, the U.S. has strengthened our supply chains for critical goods.

Taiwan is a major producer of semiconductors—critical components for building computers, smartphones, and other technology. China has threatened repeatedly to blockade or invade the island, which would have a ripple effect on companies across the globe in many industries.

Congress passed legislation to help support the production of semiconductors in our own backyard. And major manufacturing plants being built in Arizona and Ohio are slated to go online in a few years.

On medicine, the news is more mixed. Key components of pharmaceutical imports from China have increased significantly since 2020. But although we’re still overly reliant on China for medicine, there are glimmers of hope. 

On Chinese government influence in the U.S., progress has been made as well.

Congress passed legislation that will force the Chinese owner of TikTok to divest from the app. While TikTok is incredibly popular, it’s also suspected of being a Trojan Horse that collects private data on Americans.

Additionally, most Confucius Institutes have closed. These appeared at many universities and were billed as cultural exchange programs. But they turned out to be propaganda outfits for the Chinese Communist Party. Congress put pressure on universities to shutter these programs, and there are fewer than five left out of the more than 100 that used to exist.

Despite improvements, Chinese spying and influence operations are still prevalent. 

An aide to New York Governor Kathy Hochul was arrested in 2022 and accused of being a Chinese agent. The Justice Department uncovered an alleged undercover Chinese police station in New York City last year that was used by the Chinese government to harass its critics who live in America. And the FBI recently said that a China-linked company hacked 260,000 devices connected to the Internet, such as cameras and routers.

Looking ahead, whoever is elected in November needs to double down on efforts to harden U.S. defenses against China. That means cracking down harder on TikTok brainwashing, exposing other influence operations, and expanding incentives to bring manufacturing of critical goods back to the U.S. and our territories like Puerto Rico.

China is still a clear threat and is continuing aggressive, if subtle, actions against us. Pushing back harder needs to be a priority of the next presidential administration.

Will Coggin is the managing director of the American Security Institute.