While Americans are generally aware of China’s ambitions as a global economic and military superpower, few understand just how deeply and assertively that country has already sought to influence American society. As the authors of this volume write, it is time for a wake-up call. In documenting the extent of Beijing’s expanding influence operations inside the United States, they aim to raise awareness of China’s efforts to penetrate and sway a range of American institutions: state and local governments, academic institutions, think tanks, media, and businesses. And they highlight other aspects of the propagandistic “discourse war” waged by the Chinese government and Communist Party leaders that are less expected and more alarming, such as their view of Chinese Americans as members of a worldwide Chinese diaspora that owes undefined allegiance to the so-called Motherland. Featuring ideas and policy proposals from leading China specialists, China’s Influence and American Interests argues that a successful future relationship requires a rebalancing toward greater transparency, reciprocity, and fairness. Throughout, the authors also strongly state the importance of avoiding casting aspersions on Chinese and on Chinese Americans, who constitute a vital portion of American society. But if the United States is to fare well in this increasingly adversarial relationship with China, Americans must have a far better sense of that country’s ambitions and methods than they do now. Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He writes a monthly column for the American Interest and frequently consults on policies and programs to promote democracy. Orville Schell is the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society, the former dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California—Berkeley, and the author of twelve books on China. China's Influence and American Interests Promoting Constructive Vigilance By Larry Diamond, Orville Schel Hoover Institution Press Copyright © 2019 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-8179-2285-6 Contents List of Abbreviations, Foreword, Acknowledgments, Policy Principles for Constructive Vigilance, Introduction, 1 Congress, 2 State and Local Governments, 3 The Chinese American Community, 4 Universities, 5 Think Tanks, 6 Media, 7 Corporations, 8 Technology and Research, APPENDIX 1 China's Influence Operations Bureaucracy, APPENDIX 2 China's Influence Activities in Select Countries, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and ASEAN, United Kingdom, APPENDIX 3 Chinese-Language Media Landscape, Dissenting Opinion, Afterword, Working Group Participants, Index, CHAPTER 1 Congress During past presidential administrations, the US Congress has generally served as a brake on executive initiatives to "engage" China at the expense of other US interests that members have historically valued, such as maintaining good relations with Taiwan, interacting with the Tibetan government in exile, and expressing support for human rights. When President Donald Trump assumed office in 2017 and actively began courting Chinese President Xi Jinping, first at Mar-a-Lago and then at the Beijing summit, Congress took a wait-and-see posture. But as his own ardor for a partnership with Xi cooled and his administration became disenchanted with the idea of finding an easy new "engagement" policy, momentum began to shift. Soon Congress was working toward one of the most significant reevaluations of US policy toward China since the start of normalization fifty years ago. And with the White House increasingly skeptical about the prospects of winning President Xi's cooperation, a series of new initiatives began issuing forth from both the administration and Congress, suggesting a rapidly changing landscape for US-China relations. What was telling was that this tidal shift now emanated not from Congress alone — where it had strong bipartisan support — but also from the White House and National Security Council, the Pentagon, the Office of the US Trade Representative, the Department of the Treasury, and even the Department of State. As sentiment shifted away from hopes of finding common ways to collaborate, a spate of new US policy initiatives began appearing that suggested a sea change. Congress passed the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which sought to bolster US defenses against both Chinese military threats and China's influence-seeking operations inside the United States. Congress also passed the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018, which empowered CFIUS (the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) to expand its oversight of foreign direct investment from China. At the same time, members of Congress also began expressing