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While we were a little scared of the Russians in the 1980s, the real boogeyman was Japan. Their economy had roared into overdrive — thanks to America’s generous post-WWII rebuild — and many were afraid of the implications. But nowadays, the Japanese are both the third-largest economy in the world and our friends. Our fears were unwarranted.

This is not, however, the case with China today.

China is ruled by a ruthless regime that torments its own people and clearly has imperial designs. Of the 5,000 counterintelligence cases opened by the FBI nationwide, half of them involve China. One in five corporations say China has stolen their IP within the last year. They are bribing our intelligence assets and government officials, even here in Utah, and they’re pretty open about their designs to blow up our aircraft carriers.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that it is investigating China’s counterintelligence targeting of Utah citizens and businesses specifically, which is in part why the Utah House of Representatives passed a resolution that called for shutting down Communist Party-funded Confucius Institutes in-state.

The Chinese Communist Party’s tentacles are wrapped around every aspect of global life, and they’re just going to keep squeezing — unless something happens.

Al Drago/Pool via AP

One person who understands this is Rep. Chris Stewart. As reported recently in The Wall Street Journal, he is seeking confidential Capitol Hill briefings with officials from the National Reconnaissance Office and elsewhere to determine if China has corrupted any of our satellite technology. Specifically, Stewart is concerned about possible financial connections between the Chinese regime and SpaceX.

An aerospace manufacturer that does about $2 billion of business a year, SpaceX is the pet project of media darling Elon Musk. Its business dealings are relatively opaque because it isn’t publicly traded, but Musk’s Tesla is. Chinese tech-tyrant Tencent has an ownership stake in Tesla, and China is itself one of Tesla’s largest markets, thanks to support from the CCP, which has given Musk cheap loans and land to build a Shanghai facility where Tesla vehicles and batteries are assembled, the WSJ article continues.

While Musk is admired by many, including myself, Stewart is not the first member of Congress to raise concerns about his connections to China. In January, several members criticized Musk for opening a showroom in Xinjiang Province, just down the road from the CCP’s anti-Uyghur atrocities.

Musk makes great products but it doesn’t matter how much better our tech is if China’s approach of rob, replicate and replace allows them to weaponize our satellites or other technology against us. China isn’t interested in flying planes into our buildings; they want to own our buildings, top to bottom.

They are running a 100-year marathon to replace America as the global superpower, and if Elon Musk and other U.S. businesses are there waiting to give them some Gatorade at mile marker 21, he needs to stop.

World affairs have shifted seismically in the last few years, with the benevolent, powerful West becoming less powerful and the world less benevolent. There are plenty of bad actors willing to step into that lacuna and take the reins from us. Sure, we’re a little scared of Russians right now, because we see images of their tanks rolling through Ukraine on the news. But the Russians are lightweights compared to the Chinese. Kudos to Rep. Stewart for recognizing this and making strides to keep Utahns safe.

Jared Whitley is a longtime Utah and DC politico, having worked for Sen. Orrin Hatch and in the Bush White House. He has won myriad journalism awards, notably as best column writer from the Best of the West competition in 2016.

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