The best way to thwart China's aggressive efforts to spy on the U.S. through bases in Cuba or other means is to cut off Beijing's money supply through trade, author and China analyst Gordon Chang told Newsmax on Friday.
Shipments of goods from China to the U.S. in April dropped 21% compared with the same period a year earlier, according to data from China's General Administration of Customs, a likely result of President Donald Trump imposing 145% reciprocal tariffs on Beijing.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and China's top trade official, He Lifeng, are to meet Saturday in Switzerland in the nations' first formal trade negotiations since the reciprocal tariffs were imposed.
"China can't afford all of these spying installations in Cuba, in Latin America, around the world, in our country, if it didn't have money, and it gets the money from guess where? It gets it from us, from trade, and from investment," Chang told "The Chris Salcedo Show" and guest host Joe Pinion. "We take about 21% of China's exports, when you consider rerouted goods. That's an enormous amount. And we're also responsible for a lot of the investment into China. So, we can stop this.
"Clearly, China is now export-dependent. President Trump's tariffs basically block out a lot of Chinese products from our markets. But also, Trump with his tariffs is giving inspiration and reason for other countries to do the same to Chinese goods. This is important right now because we can starve the beast. This is up to us. This is something that we can do. … I hope this weekend, when the Treasury secretary meets the Chinese counterpart He Lifeng that we don't surrender in this trade war because this is where we define our future."
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., chair of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security, held a hearing Tuesday regarding the growing influence of China in Cuba.
Gimenez said the collaboration between the communist nations "represents one of the most brazen intelligence operations ever attempted near the American mainland, and places our military operations, commercial activity, and communications squarely in the crosshairs of a hostile foreign power."
Chang said: "We've known about this for a very long time because right after the Cold War, the Chinese took over the Lourdes base, which was the largest Soviet intelligence gathering operation outside the Soviet Union itself.
"We have all of these monitoring stations that China has established on our own soil with all of these military aged men, with China's consulates, with its embassy, with its state enterprises and banks, and with the secret police stations, which do gather information on us.
"So, we have been thoroughly penetrated, and only now are we starting to talk about this in a serious way, and only now are we actually starting to do something about it. But we're still at a very early stage of getting rid of these Chinese installations on our own soil."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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