Xi Jinping, Tear Down This Wall

Communism is all about power and control. During the tyranny of the Soviet Union, one of the clearest examples of this was the Berlin Wall—a physical representation of an attempt to trap their subjugated population.

Today, we need another Brandenburg moment. Whereas the Soviet Union kept its people behind an Iron Curtain, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) keeps its people behind a cyber wall. The CCP has built a digital network designed to monitor, censor, and oppress the Chinese people under the thumb of Xi Jinping. In 1987, bold American leaders stood up to the iron fist of communism and called out its oppressive practices on the world stage. When communism reared its ugly head to threaten global security and democracy, they refused to back down.

When President Reagan looked across the Brandenburg Bridge on June 12th, 1987, he saw people living in squalor. Cars were few and far between, people walked the streets in ragged clothes, and buildings still bore the scars of a war that had ended more than 40 years earlier. A look into modern-day China tells a similar story. Like the Soviet Union, wealth is redistributed by and for CCP officials. In provinces like Shanghai or Beijing, wealth distribution is four times higher than in some of China’s poorest regions. For example, Xinjiang, where the majority of Uyghur Muslims are located or imprisoned in reeducation camps, has the highest poverty rate in China.

It was the poverty-stricken and dreadful conditions of East Germany and the growing threat the Soviet Union’s communism posed to the free world that spurred President Reagan to demand Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” We have seen no such call to action from President Biden to Xi Jinping.

Just two years after President Reagan called for the destruction of the Berlin Wall, the CCP slaughtered protesters in the streets of Beijing at Tiananmen Square. According to the CCP, this atrocity never took place. The CCP has used ruthless oppression and advanced technology to control the historical narrative and erase its crimes from memory. This begs the question: What other streams of information is the CCP controlling?

By exploiting state-owned internet services, biotech, and other advanced technology, while also using a vast camera network and facial recognition technology, Communist China has created a social network system based on loyalty to the CCP. This system tracks private citizens for “social transgressions” against the CCP, and violators can suffer harsh repercussions.

The CCP is also testing a state-controlled digital currency—the digital yuan. This system can track every purchase and sale in one giant digital ledger. There’s no doubt that under this system, the CCP will have access to information on every purchase made with the digital yuan. Like everything else the CCP does, this move is about retaining its power and control over the Chinese people.

One of the central tenets of communism has always been expansion. We witnessed this throughout the Cold War with the Soviet Union’s attempts at invading neighboring countries. Now, the CCP is interested in expanding its sphere of power by exporting its surveillance state, and using malicious technology while conducting cyberattacks and acts of espionage. Earlier this year, the CCP launched a spy balloon into the United States to collect intelligence on U.S. military bases, critical infrastructure, and Americans’ private homes. This use of technology to spy on our homeland is a threat to our national security. I received a letter from the CEO of TikTok confirming that the app’s source code engineers could have ties to the CCP. In Communist China, there is no separation between the public and private sectors, meaning if the CCP requests data collected by a company on American users, the company must hand over that information.

That’s why I introduced the China Technology Transfer Control Act. This legislation will keep sensitive U.S. technology from being exported to the CCP. The CCP has spied on and stolen intellectual property to gain a crucial advantage in developing advanced technologies that they use to oppress their own people. And there is no doubt that they also have the ambition to weaponize this technology against the United States. It’s one thing to ignore the Berlin Wall; it’s another to give communist regimes the brick-and-mortar to build it.

Thanks to the rapid advancement of modern technology, the CCP now poses the greatest threat to our national security since the Soviet Union. While the Soviet Union crumbled in the face of American might, the threat communist regimes pose to global rules-based order has endured. This isn’t a Chinese question alone, but a question of freedom and human dignity for all of mankind.

As the leader of the free world, the United States must stand up for freedom and against those who prey on the weak. It’s time for Xi Jinping to tear down his wall.

Rep. Mark Green is a physician and combat veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, where he served three tours. He interviewed Saddam Hussein for six hours on the night of his capture. He is chair of the House Homeland Security Committee and serves on the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees.