One problem with what has begun to appear to be long delays ahead in determining the winner of the presidential election is that, if President Trump indeed does not win, he will have less time to clear up some unfinished business before leaving office, including dealings with China.
The laptop Hunter Biden abandoned at a Delaware repair shop raised questions about not just Hunter’s dealings with various figures in China, but whether Joe Biden himself was involved in shakedowns of Chinese interests.
Regardless of whether criminal culpability is established, the contents of the laptop make clear Joe Biden will not hold China to account for its spying and theft of intellectual property from American firms and that China may have potentially compromising information on him and his family that could prevent him from acting in America’s interests.
Foreign policy experts already are saying a Biden presidency, were it to occur, would provide "breathing room," "a brief timeout" and perhaps "changes to deteriorating bilateral relations that have been trapped in a vicious circle under the Trump administration."
Biden is said to want to hire more diplomats to work on the China problem and signal "a repudiation of [Trump’s]'divisive conduct and chaotic administration.'"
In other words, more nice talk and diplomatic exchanges, and much less confrontation over intellectual property theft, unfair trade practices and other measures the Chinese took to undermine the American economy.
To that end, President Trump must move to protect America’s interests before he leaves office and do so in a way not easily undone by his successor.
He could start by getting behind two amendments to the NASA funding legislation offered by Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo. One calls for a requirement that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) review all NASA contractors for ties to China.
The other calls for NASA and other agencies to take into account.
The moves would not prohibit Chinese firms from doing business in the U.S., but they would give the government executives involved in these projects information on who they are dealing with that could prove critical.
Moreover, President Trump should push for completion of the systematic reviews he ordered of the powerful Chinese companies that engage in data collection in the United States. Trump already has signed executive orders against WeChat, Huawei, and TikTok.
These were critical steps considering Huawei is owned by the Chinese military and TikTok and WeChat are connected to ByteDance and Tencent, firms known to have Chinese Communist Party affiliations.
The administration is said to already be considering further sanctions for Tencent, a media conglomerate connected to numerous U.S. data firms and an investor in Tesla.
Tesla, owned by Elon Musk, considers Tencent an investor and "strategic adviser," and it has taken $1.6 billion in loans from China.
As it began to emerge as more than a Chinese company, Tencent also invested heavily in Uber, which has millions of dollars of rideshare data and driverless technology.
After the president’s executive orders decreased its ability to collect information and influence the company’s direction, Tencent purchased a share of SnapChat, with its unique tracking capabilities and facial recognition technology.
The stakes have never been higher.
The Chinese are estimated to steal as much as $600 billion worth of American intellectual property per year.
Moreover, Chinese efforts to dominate the United States politically, economically and militarily now extend beyond the Earth’s atmosphere to space, where the Chinese are racing to deploy weapons technology largely stolen from American firms.
In recent months, one former administrator said the U.S. would have to go nuclear in space to protect itself from the Chinese threat.
It's essential the administration complete its review of Chinese tech/data firms before the president’s term expires. It's essential we understand which Chinese companies own which firms and to which data these ownership stakes provide access.
It's essential that we know what American firms are involved with space projects and what of our information may be vulnerable to attack.
These steps are necessary to protect our country in what looks to be the next frontier —space travel and satellite technology.
And it is not a good bet, all things considered, that we can rely on Joe Biden to take this seriously.
Steve Gruber is a conservative talk show host with 25 affiliates in Michigan. "The Steve Gruber Show" launched in 2012 with just four affiliates and has grown into the most powerful name in talk radio across Michigan. Steve has been named "Best Morning Personality" by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters five years in a row. His conservative, common-sense philosophy was developed during his time growing up in rural Michigan. Steve's early career found him in several newsrooms including WILX, Lansing where he honed his investigative journalism and interviewing skills. He became the main news anchor of the station and before long was offered a job with NBC in Columbus, Ohio. While working for NBC, he covered the incredible launch of John Glenn, age 77, into space at Cape Canaveral, White Supremacists in Ohio, and the deadly game of selling prescription medication online. Steve was nominated for an Emmy in 2000. Read Steve Gruber's Reports — More Here.