Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win

by Peter Schweizer

From the Biden family to the Bush family, this book explores material that will astonish (or distress) the American reader.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, China, Political Science, Audiobook, True Crime

348 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 25, 2022

About the author

Peter Schweizer is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. From 2008-'09 he served as a consultant to the White House Office of Presidential Speechwriting and he is a former consultant to NBC News. He has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, Foreign Affairs, and elsewhere. His books include The Bushes, Reagan's War, and Do as I Say, Not as I Do.

Reviews

[Petra X]

This book will have a different meaning for people living in the Caribbean than the US. The Chinese have been offering aid, education and business to all the places, about 70 countries, in the Caribbean and Africa that the US and West in general ignore as part of their Belt and Road Initiative. You can read about it here, wikipediaDOTorg/wiki/Belt_and_Road_Initiative.

How it works in the Caribbean is like this, using Dominica as an example. They shore up a very corrupt government by bribing all the influential members of the ruling party. These people, now rich beyond their wildest expectations, refuse to allow supervised elections and make life very difficult for people who are outspoken against the government. They also pass money on down so that companies give their full support to the government and fire people who are known voters of the opposition. My friend said that you had to have two t-shirts at election time. One for public wear that supports the government, and one for the other side when you go to their parties.

The Chinese make loans for business which when not repaid, they ruthlessly take land in exchange. A lot of land. They give education aid by scholarships in China, in a Chinese language, for such useless things as Tourism. My friend was offered one, how was she to learn about tourism in Dominica in China and how was she to learn university level Chinese? They are laughing at the people.

The police are taken to China for special training (!). Institutions are given loans, hospitals are built. But nothing comes without strings and the strings are made of steel and it's like a web in the Caribbean, hospitals in St Kitts, Grenada, Antigua & Barbuda, a huge seaport in Jamaica, $500M investments in Barbados, similarly in Suriname, Venezuela, Dominican Republic (Santo Domingo) and Cuba too. Jamaica has at least five institutes teaching Mandarin, Barbados is teaching it too.

This is from a government newsite and not at all independent. dominicanewsonlineDOTcom/news/homepage/homepage-carousel/china-is-proud-of-being-able-to-help-dominicas-social-and-economic-development/

This is from an American site gatestoneinstituteDOTorg/16813/china-military-caribbean.

So I'm not reading the book from the same perspective as Americans, although I know it is entirely about the American elite and their corruption by the Chinese probably really easy, i doubt any of them stood out against it leading to Chinese having outspoken friends in the political sphere, easing their path into eventually, what they hope, will be the same sort of political take over as on the Caribbean islands. Politicians looking independent but all those of influence will be in China's pay.

[Marialyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a distressing book, one that many the American should probably read. It covers a very unsettling concept, that we are literally be sold out to China, which really means the Chinese Communist Party. Peter Schweitzer, has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, Foreign Affairs. He knows of what he writes of including a plethora of emails, documents, and through investigation into the category we know as the elites.

The Bidens, the Bushes, The Pelosis, former Senators and current members of the Senate, Feinstein, McConnell and others) and members of Congress, former Secretaries of State (Henry Kissinger, Madeline Albright to name a few), former Congressional leaders (John Boehner) are deeply entrenched in "business' in China. What Mr. Schweitzer points out to the reader is that all Businesses in China are connected to the CCP. These 'ties" go back a long way and are particularly disturbing considering our current leaders are deep into this play for pay, prestige, and power. These seem to be the great aphrodisiacs for these families. He does mention Hunter Biden and his famous laptop which of course provides so much of what we now know is true. Even included in the number of sell outs is the Trudeau family so the US is not the only one finding itself in the quagmire of self-serving leaders.

Not to be left out is the titans of Wall Street, and the social media kingpins, like Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Jack Dorsey et al. One tech giant, the Alibaba company, led by Jack Mar. works closely with a US company on developing such programs such as facial recognition something quite useful to China as a way to identify the Uyghurs a group they wish to do away with. It's a troubling concept that the first person the head of China, (CCP) Xi Jinping, went first to see Mark Zuckerberg while in the States instead of the president. All of these intertwining companies share information on its citizens, have opened up the illegal stealing of our intellectual properties, making China grow into a position where it will eventually surpass the US. Scary stuff indeed!

To leave out Wall Street would also be a mistake. Many of the titans of Wall Street also take rose-colored glasses look at China. If we are making money, then the harsh realities of a dictatorship can be pushed aside.

Peter Schweitzer names names and shows connections that can be proven and not denied. He and his team spent over a year of dig deep investigative reporting to bring his findings to us. It's a look also at how so many have gone soft on the Chinese atrocities. They give benevolent comments that seem like a slap on the wrist while countless numbers have been killed, imprisoned, and disappeared. One recent example of this was Nancy Pelosi's urging our athletes at the Olympic Games to say nothing harmful because this is their culture. (a claim made to excuse their atrocities)


If this information in the book is untrue, Mr Schweitzer would be sued by the grievants but they of course want this to be buried along with possibly millions of people killed by the CCP. The mention of Tienanmen Square (where the CCP killed thousands) also elicits the same response of this is the way we needed to go forward to control the "dissidents", for to be a dissent in China means a likely end of life. (It's their culture and we have our own racial problems in the US is another standard response)

I realize many of us scoff at this book possible saying the coined phrase of Russian interference, or disinformation. Think, if this book details disinformation why is it not challenged? Perhaps, and this is the scary part, it is all true. This is not a book that takes sides, it is one that presents information and lets we, the reader take it from there.

It was certainly a huge wake up call to this reader. I will be the first to acknowledge that we are in deep trouble and need to be alerted to what we hear, what we watch, and how we adapt ourselves in a world of lies and deceit.

One other addendum was the fact that guest speakers, political pundits, and experts on policy, on TV should have their connections to China made know to the public watching. In that way, we, the public, would know where their allegiances lie.

Bottom line is China is not our friend. Their goal is to emerge as number one in all fields and to that end they will step all over the US, aided by our own citizens,(the elites) to achieve that goal.

[Amora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elites in Silicon Valley, Congress, Wall Street, and Higher Education have basically sold out the United States to China. This book has solidified by hatred for Big Tech and for the Chinese regime. Honestly, I think the chapter on Silicon Valley is the most damning. Read this if you can handle high blood pressure.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was both the perfect and worst time to read this. It's well written and researched. These people are truly despicable.

[Linda Galella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every source is named and nobody is safe from the investigations conducted by Peter Schweizer and a crew of forensic investigators.

Peter is president of the non-partisan Government Accountability Institute (GAI) and a senior contributor to Breitbart News. They spent over a year investigating for this book that many of the political elite as well, as their families, will be less than happy about its publication. Schweizer took away all the excuses by carefully untangling events where ever they lead.

First up in the book is the Biden Family and how deep the entanglements with China reach. Involvement begins when Joe was a congressman, magnifies while VP with Hunter, his brother and others joining in and the subterfuge becomes more pronounced. Laptop issues are discussed as are the President’s “claims of knowledge”.

After the chapter on the Biden Family, Schweizer moves on to Senator Feinstein and her husband, Speaker Pelosi and her Family, Mitch McConnell and his wife, just to mention a few of the elites! Each of these power couples will be none to happy about seeing themselves in print in this book.

Big Tech and Wall Street have been in the news along with their very wealthy owners and their lobbying with various committees in DC. Reading about it here is clearly organized and doesn’t have the inflammatory emotional rhetoric involved with mainstream infauxtainment folks.

Schweizer goes back and looks at how/when the US relationship with China started down this path to trouble and we have Reagan, Albright, Kissinger, Clinton, the Bush Family, Obama and Trump. It’s really sobering to look at the changes in business & technology over this timeline and to compare the US growth with China’s. He believes that many agree with a Kissinger idea that at some point in the not too distant future, Beijing won’t have need of the US and when that happens, “they will be difficult to handle.” Basically, they have paid to play; the elite have their fortunes tied to China and the rest of us are learning now just how much our daily lives are tied to them. We’ve been caught “Red Handed”📚

[L.A. Starks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent compendium of investigative journalism by Schweizer. He spares no one--not Republicans, Democrats, basketball stars, capitalists, bankers, nor universities as he delivers painful details about how Chinese have bought off so many of them.

While discouraging, this is a very important reference about what lies behind public, promotional statements in the US about China that have become so common, and that so cloud the issues: lots of Chinese cash, influence, and power.

Thriller readers and anyone who wants to really understand what's going on in the US-China relationship should read Red-Handed.

Highly recommended.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book may just make your head explode with outrage. Be careful.



It should be obvious to everyone that the Chinese government is a repressive, authoritarian regime, without question. They have gotten very good at making top officials in other countries look the other way with money, favors, and gifts. This book calls out some of the elites, mostly Americans, who have chosen worldly gains over universal values. Schweizer excuses no one, regardless of political views or affiliation.

Chapter 1: The Rope – introduction
Chapter 2: The Bidens – A followup to Joe Biden’s dealings exposed in Secret Empires. The corruption here is staggering.
Chapter 3: Capitol Hill – How senators and congressmen get rich from China, compromising national security, particularly Dianne Feinstein, Eric Swalwell, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, John Podesta, and others.
Chapter 4: Silicon Valley – How tech CEOs have sold out to China and helped China become a state-of-the-art surveillance state. The big offenders are Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Peter Thiel, Eric Schmidt and plenty of others.
Chapter 5: Wall Street – How American elites fund shady Chinese activities, especially Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone; Goldman Sachs; Bridgewater hedge fund; and of course Larry Fink and BlackRock.
Chapter 6: Diplomats – How diplomats become lobbyists for China once their assignments are over. This includes Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright, William Cohen, Concoleezza Rice, Robert Gates, and Max Baucus.
Chapter 7: The Bush and Trudeau Dynasties – The Bush family’s connections to China, particularly Neil and Jeb. We also take a detour into Canada to investigate Pierre and Justin Trudeau. I don’t get how Canadians elected someone so corrupt, but then again, Americans picked Joe Biden, who’s arguably even more corrupt.
Chapter 8: Higher Education – How universities act as fronts for Chinese money and give easy access to spies. (Remember, China doesn’t innovate. It steals intellectual property instead.) These universities, especially Yale, illegally accept lots of money from Chinese donors. Harvard and other colleges are also guilty.
Chapter 9: Fighting Back – Suggestions for laws and citizen activities to curb Chinese activity that harms national security and aids China’s human rights abuses.
The final hundred pages of the book consist of notes and sources.

Clean content

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New evidence makes clear that the Biden family received some $31 million from Chinese businessmen with very close ties to the highest levels of Chinese intelligence during and after Joe Biden’s tenure as vice president. Indeed, as of this writing, some of those financial relationships remain intact.

The hazard of a Chinese businessman with close ties to the top ranks of Beijing’s spy agency conducting financial transactions with the son of the U.S. vice president cannot be overstated. How this did not set off national security or ethics alarm bells in Washington is a wonder in itself.

Vice President Joe Biden continued to emphasize in his discussions that China was not a rival or a threat to the United States and that a rising China was good for America.

Hunter Biden was now the U.S. representative for an intelligence- and military-linked Chinese company that was supporting voices calling for an aggressive military posture against the United States and its allies.

Each deal the Bidens secured in China was via a businessman with deep ties at the highest levels of Chinese intelligence. And in each case there appears to be little discernible business or professional service that was rendered in return for the money. With their cultivation of a close financial relationship of influence in American politics. Being financially bonded to the First Family provides enormous opportunities for leverage.

Lenovo, with Senator Feinstein’s husband a major owner, would a few years later be accused by U.S. officials of placing spyware on computers sold to the United States military.

Concerns about climate change have become a powerful tool for Beijing to divert attention from human rights and other issues. In September 2021, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi delivered a speech at Cambridge University in which she acknowledged China’s “genocide” of the Uighurs, while proclaiming that partnering with China on climate change was the “overriding issue.” John Kerry, the former U.S. senator and secretary of state, has said the same. This gives Beijing enormous leverage by granting it a powerful tool with which to silence their critics: talk too harshly about genocide, and we will no longer cooperate with you on climate change policies.

Under the Paris Climate Accords, Beijing, which is the world’s largest carbon producer, can continue to grow its carbon emissions up until 2030. ... The accords also assume that China will honor its commitments—and offer no penalties if they fail to do so. ... China was a big winner in another way, too. The United States will honor its commitments under the Paris Climate Accords largely by buying solar panels and other green technologies manufactured in China.

[Bill] Gates has cooperated with the regime in ways that other tech titans have not. He has lent credence to the claims of the Chinese Communist Party and been rewarded with access, favors, and titles. He has done the bidding of the regime in the tech world and has apologized or made excuses for its aberrant activities. On top of all that, he has invested in companies attached to Beijing’s military-industrial complex. Gates appears to have always underestimated the repressive nature of the CCP. His relentless techno-optimism has made him an easy mark. He has expressed naive attitudes about the role of technology in that repression.

Collaboration between American tech companies and Chinese military-linked research labs has enormous implications for our national security. What makes that collaboration even more galling is the fact that China has very different anticipated uses for the technologies than the United States. ... “Authoritarian regimes will continue to use AI-powered face recognition, biometrics, predictive analytics, and data fusion as instruments of surveillance, influence, and political control.”

When legislation was introduced in Congress that would require determination whether Chinese entities might be leveraging U.S. companies that do work with NASA, SpaceX lobbied against the legislation. Some national security experts are very concerned about Beijing’s ability to leverage Musk and possibly SpaceX.

So, BlackRock takes extra care to speak to providers of weapons to law-abiding American citizens. In China, they own shares in companies directly linked to the People’s Liberation Army. The companies in which BlackRock owns shares directly support Xi’s “Military-Civil Fusion.” One wonders who might suffer at the wrong end of those weapons and technologies. There is no evidence that BlackRock has spoken to these Chinese companies asking them how they are “responding to society’s expectations of them.”

Wall Street thoroughly bought into the idea that as China grew more prosperous, it would become less militaristic and more democratic. Of course, that has not happened. And money is fungible—making China more prosperous helps them build their military. That means that even if financial deals with the Beijing regime may not be directly related to military activity, they still pose a serious security risk.

Indeed, Wall Street has been a go-to weapon for Beijing to deploy against Washington. As Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg write in their book ..., “Whenever presidents Clinton, Bush or Obama threatened to take a tougher stance on China’s trade protectionism, currency manipulation or technology theft, Wall Street chiefs used their influence to persuade them to back off.”

America’s diplomats are hired and paid to look out for our national interests. They take an oath to do exactly so. But how effective can they be at their jobs if they are looking down the road and seeing fat fees by doing business deals in China? The revolving door is a permanent fixture in Washington, D.C. Usually, it spins between the U.S. government and American businesses. Diplomats have globalized it—and far too often gone into business with our chief rival on the global stage. Beijing knows this, and through seduction and perhaps even cajoling, manages to put many of America’s national security and diplomatic figures on the payroll.

Sometimes, Beijing finds influential Westerners who are true believers. They believe they are being given lucrative opportunities in industries they know about because China is the new land of opportunity. They believe the Chinese system is creating unparalleled economic justice. They believe China will eventually become a force for good in the world. When China finds people like that, they shower their families with economic and political rewards.

Pierre Trudeau and his family have justified their silence on matters of human rights because they do not want to “judge Chinese values by western standards.” This is a naive and absurd position. It also happens to be a favorite line of argument pushed by the CCP. The suppression of rights and the brutality of the regime in China is not a function of a Leninist dictatorship run by the Chinese Communist Party. The brutality that occurs in China is similar to that of every Marxist-Leninist regime: the Soviet Union, East Germany, and Cuba, to name a few.

When the Canadian government joined the United States and the European Union in sanctioning Chinese officials involved in the suppression of the Uighurs, some [Chinese officials] turned angrily on Trudeau. ... But Trudeau was hardly leading the parade. He gave all indications of being a reluctant participant. Just two months earlier, on February 22, 2021, the Canadian House of Commons voted 266-0 in support of a resolution calling China’s actions against the Uighurs “genocide.” Trudeau and his cabinet abstained from the vote.

A few months after [Joe] Tsai became a full-fledged NBA owner, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey set of a firestorm with a simple tweet about ongoing protests in Hong Kong. “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong,” he tweeted. The Chinese government in Beijing was furious and immediately asked for Morey to be fired.

[Daryl] Morey’s tweet was not the first time the normally outspoken [LeBron] James has remained silent about Chinese abusive actions. In 2007, black Sudanese Christians were being slaughtered in Darfur by a regime backed by the Chinese government. In all, an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 were killed. Beijing provided the regime with political support and was the Sudanese government’s chief trading partner. The unfolding atrocities gave rise to a movement calling on Beijing to stop supporting Sudan. A letter to the Chinese government was written by one of James’s teammates on the Cleveland Cavaliers. Every player on the team signed the letter, save two. One, a backup guard, had a shoe contract with a Chinese company. The other was superstar LeBron James. After howls or protest, James eventually did come out with a muted statement about human rights.

Ban joint research by American universities, investors, and corporations with Chinese military and intelligence projects. It is shocking to discover that we actually have to pass a law preventing American tech firms and universities from working with and aiding Chinese companies that are part of Beijing’s military-industrial complex. That is precisely what we must do. Why exactly does anyone in a corporate office or a college campus believe it is a good idea to help strengthen Beijing’s military capabilities?

Clyde Prestowitz: If the New York Times cannot be distributed in China, the CCP should not be allowed to own newspapers in America. If Amazon is limited in China’s market, Alibaba should be similarly limited in the U.S. market. If GE will have to move its avionics division into a joint venture with state owned Avic, Washington will halt the move unless Avic drops state ownership and enters into joint development, production, and sales ventures with Boeing and Airbus for its planned new aircraft. Just as U.S. universities, nonprofits, and religious organizations are restricted in China, so Confucius Institutes and Chinese Student and Scholars Associations will be restricted or banned in the United States.

[Michael K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite the interesting book, to say the least. Almost a political form of the Godfather series! However it spans other presidents and their families, not just Biden. Funny how politicians are able to go into public service and come out millionaires, and yet, those working-class stiffs out in the society in which we live do what our state, or federal, representatives do...they go to jail for insider trading. This book, along with Gordon Chang's the Coming Collapse of China, and The Laptop from Hell by Miranda Devine paint a very sordid tail in our political system...especially that of this present administration. Excellent book to read! Each book stands on its own merits.

[Glen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoroughly researched book into how China has co-opted politicians, institutions, and corporations.

I wish I could say I was surprised, or even disappointed.

[Owlseyes]

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/20...


https://www.breitbart.com/politics/20...


https://www.breitbart.com/economy/202...


https://www.breitbart.com/politics/20...

[Bernard · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is no one in Washington D.C. working for me and they seem to all be making a lot of money. Nothing suspicious here, move along, move along!

Books like this one do not start revolutions, but failing to thoroughly investigate and expose the corruption shown in these types of books does cause revolutions.

I knew Dianne Feinstein was a China supporter, I knew that her husband was up to his butt in Chinese deals. I knew that her chauffer was a Chinese agent. What I didn't know is that her chauffer was not a chauffer but her office director? Since she chaired the senate intelligence committee, that might be a big problem.

Nancy Pelosi is a crook? Say it isn't so!

I knew Mitch McConnell was an establishment hack, but I did not know just how tight his wife's father's connections with the Chinese Communist Party are...

I knew John Boehner is a drunk, I didn't know about the firm he leads that supports China and the CCP.

I knew the Bush family was establishment scum, but I didn't know just how tight Neil Bush is with the CCP. This book pretty much guarantees no Bush ever becomes president again.

I was not surprised about the Silicon Valley weasels selling their souls for a few more Chinese bucks. Each one of them is more craven and evil than the one before.

In short, this book will enrage anyone who actually believes in duty, honor, country.

The author gives a few ideas at the end of the book on fighting back, but they aren't all that good. They seem weak and put in as an afterthought.

Since China is rapidly approaching a financial crisis, the payoffs may cease. When that happens, a lot of China supporters may change their allegiances. Only time will tell. I will note that the tech moguls are the more endangered. Their products are easily copied and the Chinese government may shortly have no use for them... I would hate to see them lose money...

I am thinking that if the United States ends up in a real war with China, a lot of these problems solve themselves. After reading this book, I have to go with the lets destroy China whatever that damned cost approach! It would be so simple to start such a war. Whoever replaces Biden, after the 2024 election, will need to finally deal with China. India and Australia seem raring to go...

[Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eye-opening litany of everyone in America who is getting rich by dealing with China and it's a long bi-partisan list. The last chapter which is very short is titled "Fighting Back" and provides little advice. Very depressing.

[Twobchelm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This read is an excellent argument for term limits . It explains how the elite families and the well connected deal with China landing lucrative business opportunities all while professing to be against Chinas humanity violations. I believe it borders on treasonous and illegal acts that are ignored because of the elite players! The end always justifies the means… it’s a very sad description of the undermining of our country and giving China a prominent place in the world.

[John Devlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dense and authoritative.
Did I mention it’s dense.
I no know one who’s challenged the veracity of the work and the work paints a grim picture of Chinese control over various American levers of power.

The question is how did china’s communism succeed where Russia’s failed.
Russia had NATO arrayed against it, and by the 70s the US was using China as a counterweight. In a similar way in how Japan escaped after WW2 punishment bc of Russian fears so to did China.

Then there’s China’s market. Russia did not have 1 billion people to sell to and as China gave up its actual communism, Russia was fading, and tech driven globalism was catching on making that Chinese market more accessible and more financially lucrative.

I don’t believe China’s influence will be stopped externally. China will falter when its docile population decides to rise up — that is probably a generational time span.

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most depressing book this year so far. Fiction or non-fiction.

Major, major research/ footnotes/ sources- reality.

We are absolutely paying for and giving China the rope to hang our entire structure, government, country upon. And it's nearly everyone in power and all the elite technical and media friends. They are prospering.

Stark reality for the last couple of decades. In some cases, even more.

Relating how an American diplomat to such a major and populated country can actually dessert one side for another? That's the lightest tale of thousands. And I do remember a time in my life when that would have been treason measured, just in the beginning processes of switching alone.

I concur with the poster who has the graphic of wanting to hit your head on the wall after reading this book.

[Kevin Findley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so heavily footnoted and sourced, there is no way someone can, legitimately, disagree with it. Schweizer hits both parties hard with their actions and conflicts of interest. I try to pay attention to politicians who engage in this behavior since the 80s, but I was still surprised at some of the names that came up.

If you have any interest in how our lobbying laws are ignored, or twisted to benefit China, you need to read this book.

FIND IT1 BUY IT! READ IT!

[Lee · Rating 1 out of 5]

A political hack writes a hit piece, but misfires badly.

Schweizer’s book is nonsense for several reasons. He gets facts wrong, he trades in innuendo rather than evidence and his partisan critique causes him to ignore Republican politicians who he likes.

First off, Schwiezer often just gets the facts wrong. He says that the PRC is carrying out a reeducation program in camps in Nanjing Province. This is just poor fact-checking. Nanjing is a city, not a province, and the reeducation camps he is referring to are in Xinjiang, not Nanjing, fifteen hundred miles away. This mistake is indicative of more than just a lazy attitude towards getting things right. It also suggests how little Schweizer knows about his subject. Anyone competent to write about China would not have made this mistake. But he frequently is sloppy with the truth. He says that the Tiananmen Square Massacre involved 10,000 civilian deaths, but almost no legitimate scholar thinks it was more than a couple thousand. He quotes another writer as saying that Zhongnanhai is generally “forbidden to outsiders” but this is either wrong or grossly misleading, as important outsiders are often invited into Zhongnanhai.

Second, this book is full of insinuation rather than hard facts. Schweizer implies that Biden did not take China to task because it was funneling money to him through the Biden Center at the University of Pennsylvania. He does not provide proof of this, but rather notes that it might be happening, as funds to UPenn have been increasing in the period after the Biden Center opened. He states that Anthony Blinken was “reportedly” involved in turning down allowing Wang Lijun to defect to the US because Blinken did not want to upset China. There is little evidence that this was true, and the reason that the US did not accept his defection is because Wang was knee deep in a campaign of torture and killing that the US would have looked bad doing it.

Finally, this book is off base because it does not criticize the behavior of popular republicans. Schweizer does attack some Republicans, but they are ones who are out of the Maga mainstream. Trump's family members have been closely involved in several major deals in China, but they are not mentioned. It is clear that Schweizer knows who butters his bread. He is only going to attack those who are enemies within his ideological framework.

[Jeff · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just wondering who it was that praised Xi Jinping, for his “hard work” and “transparency” on the coronavirus outbreak, hailing a supposedly “momentous” phase-one trade deal, and declaring the U.S.-Chinese relationship to be “the best it’s been in a long, long time.” Whose supporters/ family members were running seminars in China, immediately after the 2016 election, on how to gain US residency and move money? Who had ongoing business relations with China?

Who was it that said Putin is a great leader and a genius, while also saying that he believes Putin over the US intelligence community?

Who said that he has a great relationship with the Saudis because they spend a lot of money in his hotels and buys R/E from him, then sold advanced military equipment to them after they brutally killed and mutilated a US resident? And, spoiler alert, wasn’t it his son in law who just received a $2 billion dollar investment from those same Saudis?

Yes, it was Trump, family and members of his administration. But the only reference to him and his administration in this book are positive. And there are many, MANY more controversial statements and actions that one only needs to google.

Those that take advantage of the system, both democrats and republicans, should be shunned or, in many instances, jailed. But it’s disingenuous to ignore what Trump and his administration has done, and instead sing his praises

[cool breeze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Schweizer has been doing excellent work investigating and reporting on US government corruption for many years. In this book, he broadens his attentions to also include Wall Street, Silicon Valley, academia, and Canada. The focus in this book is China’s very successful decades-long strategy of “elite capture” as a means of overtaking the US. Some of the corrupt people China captured include the Bidens, Feinsteins, Pelosis, McConnells, Podestas, Boehners, Clintons, Bushes and Trudeaus. Some of the corrupt businesses and institutions they captured include Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, Tesla, Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, Bridgewater, BlackRock and Yale. They also bagged a large roster of US diplomats and lobbyists, including Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright, John Brennan, James Comey, Alexander Haig, Sandy Berger, William Cohen, James Mattis, Carla Hills, Brent Scowcroft, Mickey Kantor, Condoleezza Rice, Robert Gates, Max Baucus, Terry Branstad and current UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

These are distressing revelations that will raise your blood pressure. I had to put it aside for a few days at one point. Even if you had a general idea that this kind of stuff was going on, it is quite another thing to see it spelled out in so much detail. The book is very well documented, with 82 pages of endnotes. This makes the main text a very readable 250 pages.

There is a bit of relief from the grim parade of corruption and treason in the final chapter. Schweizer outlines some practical measures that would improve the situation if they were implemented. He also credits some examples of people who have not succumbed to China’s elite capture strategy. Like them or not (and no one will like all of them), these include Democrats Chuck Schumer, Mark Warner, Chris Coons and Joe Manchin and Republicans Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio. Schweizer has always been non-partisan and even-handed in his investigations of corruption. The honor roll also includes tech executives Keith Krach (DocuSign) and Peter Thiel. It does not include any examples from academia or Wall Street, perhaps because the corruption there is so pervasive.

[Wanda Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Schweizer has done it again with a expose of a Government run by elites who become rich from their ties to the very people they were elected or appointed to protect us from. He then takes us to the entertainment and sports elites who have become wealthy beyond our dreams and who bow down to foreign leaders who wish to one day take over our country. One example is LeBron James who refuses to call out China for their treatment of ethnic groups as he is heralded as an idol in China. Schweizer brings us up to date on the Biden Crime Family and how they have become wealthy from their ties to China and Ukraine. However, he presents a fair and balanced book by including members of both parties who have benefited from their previous and current positions. He includes the Bush family, the Trudeau family, the Pelosi's, Kissinger, Gates, McConnell's, Clinton's, etc, who are all recipients of great wealth thanks to China and other foreign powers and Schweizer spells out how it is done. He also digs into big tech, Ivy League universities, and Wall Street. Kissinger once stated, "When the Chinese don't need us, they are going to be very difficult to deal with." We are getting very close to the time when China will have reaped all they can from America; their goal is 2049. Please read this book to see some suggestions from Schweizer on how to turn this around. I'm hoping it's not too late and that someone is listening.

[Carlos Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a very nasty web of greed comes to light. But of course it depends on what side of the fence you stand on. Peter does a great job of connecting the dots and yes both sides of the isle are at fault. In other words we are all effed. Jk but maybe.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an outstanding and fascinating book.

Why This Book
I picked up this book as it sounded interesting as I am doing some political readings about China and Russia lately.

A Warning
This was a fairly right-leaning book truth be told, but I feel you can read beyond that and still find it interesting and gleam some ideas from it regardless.

How The Book Is Structured
The first 2/3 of the book was a lot of history, but the final 1/3 is the current/future, where I found the book the most interesting.

Summary of the Book's Recommendations Section
At the end of this book was a set of recommendations. I feel that these guidelines and ideas were extremely helpful and eye-opening. They mostly dealt around how to deal with a wide range of international relations and foreign policy decisions, and I found them very well laid out.

The Author
Schweizer is a good researcher and good journalist.
I found this a very fascinating read. I thought his other book, Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America's Progressive Elite was quite interesting, but not even half as good as this book.

Similar Readings
It reminded me a lot of Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy, a book I would recommend as a companion to this book.

Final Thoughts
If you don't mind some right leaning narratives, it was pretty interesting altogether.

4.8/5

[Susan Haught · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy smokes...

I had no idea some of the most prominent elites in this country have been corrupted by Chinese investments, a bipartisan list of politicians, sports and entertainment celebrities, tech gurus, universities, and entrepreneurs that will make you want to throw up. It's sickening the depth of corruption they'll sink to for the sake of money, to cooperate with a foreign country that puts our country at risk in far more ways than I ever imagined, and lifts China higher on the world ladder. And it's sickening the lengths they'll go to to cover it up. Bought and paid for by the Chinese Communist Party. It's a gruesome read that affirms the argument for term limits for politicians and why we shouldn't idolize anyone who places China over the United States.

This wasn't easy reading...both due to the content and the emotional response as I was reading.

Mr. Schweizer meticulously researched the part our elites play in the China/USA games, and it's an eye-opener for sure. A part of me wishes I hadn't read it, the other congratulates me for doing so.

If you have any doubt as to China's end goal; if you have any doubt whether politicians are held hostage by the CCP; if you have any doubt how some of these people get so stinking rich, look no further. It's all here in black and white.

[Tom Stamper · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's unfortunate that Joe Biden appears prominently on the cover of this book, because Democrats might get the impression it's a hit piece on him when Biden is just one of many prominent politicians and business leaders selling the rope. Democrats would appreciate the dirt on the Bush Family, Henry Kissinger, John Boehner, and Mitch McConnell. By the end of the book you'll have heard so much corruption that what the Biden family did won't seem unusual. China has so corrupted our political and business class that rooting it out will be fought on all sides by both political parties and most corporations. And although Kissinger is a main culprit his warning that China is going to be awfully hard to deal with when they don't need us anymore is as true as anything said in the book.

How did we get here? The fallacy that freer economics creates freer government instead of vice versa. American leaders promised themselves that more market driven economics in China would force political liberty when all it has done is fueled China's military and made them a bigger danger to the free world. Schweizer says that we need to practice reciprocity. Meet every Chinese limitation on us by limiting them in the same way. Good idea, but would it be enough at this point?

[John R Francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite good, but does not live up to the hype

I enjoyed this book, and learned about details and people I wasn’t aware of. But anyone who has followed alternative media over the last few years will not be astounded, or even surprised. However it is a well-researched and footnoted addition to the proof of corporate America’s motivation to suck up to the CCP.

[Kenneth Humphrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was interested in this book and wanted to learn more about how China is a threat. There's no doubt this book is well-researched but I just couldn't stay with it.
It's a laundry list of Chinese names and dry facts strung together that can be overwhelming. Even for a non-fiction book there wasn't much of a narrative. I found myself flipping pages without intaking the content.

Putting aside the book for now. Maybe when China's economy finally collapses this will serve as a good look-back reference to see what the author got right and which elites went down with the ship.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eye opening book that will both disgust and frighten you. It appears that many of our elected officials and politicians are compromised and beholden to the CCP. While many of the other politicians are complicit in this because they do not stand up to this corruption and call the traitors out. Go along to get along strategy in play. Money, money, money, it’s how our country is bought and sold by politicians. We must open our eyes and get involved with vetting these corrupt politicians better.

[JS · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am aware that a big chunk of this book is Trumpy propaganda. However, it shows a lot of corruption from all political corners. He lists big business, academia, democrats, republicans, and many others as the problem here. And he has some very high quality sourcing

[Brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could’ve been good if he’d mentioned at all the Trump family and admin’s connections to China. Without that, it just reads like a “look over there!” partisan hit piece.

[Carolyn Kost · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a steep learning curve. I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know any of this. Our national security is completely lost, gifted and sold to the Chinese.

This is the result of the John Lennon School of International Relations with no borders, globalism, no threats. Everyone gets along astride unicorns crossing rainbow bridges.... Until reality bites, like when the U.S. Reagan administration's promise not to go "one inch further east" than Germany was abrogated, the U.S. placed missiles ON, not near like Russia in Cuba, the Russian border, and the Russian bear was poked too hard.

What's transpiring? Feinstein, Pelosi, McConnell, Biden, Bush, Clinton, Trudeau, the diplomatic corps, higher education, Silicon Valley, Wall Street, etc. have received illegal, undisclosed, and massive campaign contributions, forge commercial ties that strengthen the Chinese economy, military, and oppressive surveillance state, disadvantage U.S. economically but benefit them personally, and ignore major human rights violations of dissidents and ethnic minorities (like the concentration camps for Muslim Uighurs), Falun Gong, Hong Kong, and others.

A striking double standard is present throughout. Businesspeople, politicos, higher ed, philanthropists, etc. hypocritically promote diversity, inclusion, race and equity at home, while turning a blind eye to Chinese horrors. Joe and Clara Tsai donated $10M to activist groups in the US "to advance social justice and economic mobility for Blacks, Indigenous people and people of color, founded a nonprofit focused on reducing the prison population, while remaining silent on China, its torture, its incarceration without trial, because that is "the system of governance" (338).

President Xi: "Science and technology is a national weapon. We should seize the commanding heights of technological competition and future development" through "civilian-military fusion." All those techies like Zuckerberg, Gates, Musk, the folks at Google, YouTube, Cisco, Twitter, etc. are enthusiastic collaborators. Bill Gates said that the effort to censor the Internet would fail, but China quite successfully controls the Internet. The NSA wrote that authoritarian regimes like China (and increasingly, the USA) use A.I face recognition, biometrics, predictive analytics, and data fusion as instruments of surveillance, influence and political control" (145). Peter Thiel seems to be the lone voice sounding the alarm: "A.I. is a military technology." But "in the era of AI, if data is the new oil, then China is the new OPEC," China collects vast amounts of data not available in the USA. "More data beats a better algorithm." And the workforce is cheaper, "smart, hardworking" while "complacency and entitlement" prevail in the U.S. (166).

Back to Peter Thiel at the Nixon Forum in 2021, who said,

"There's something about the woke politics inside these companies, the way they think of themselves as not really American companies. And it's somehow very, very difficult to...have a sharp anti-China edge of any sort whatsoever" (177). "You know, I criticized Google a few years ago for refusing to work on its AI technology on Project Maven with the U.S. military, but working with Chinese universities and Chinese researchers. And since everything in China is a civilian- military fusion, Google was effectively working with the Chinese military, not with the American military. And there was sort of this question, “Why Google was doing this?” And one of the things that I was sort of told by some of the insiders at Google was they figured they might as well give the technology out through the front door, because if they didn’t give it – it would get stolen anyway.

"I had a set of conversations with some of the Google people in the deep mind AI technology, “is your AI being used to run the concentration camps in Xinjiang?” and “Well, We don’t know and don’t ask any questions.” You have this almost magical thinking that by pretending that everything is fine, that’s how you engage and have a conversation. And you make the world better. And it’s some combination of wishful thinking. It’s useful idiots, you know, it’s CCP fifth columnist collaborators....But I think if you think of it ideologically or in terms of human rights or something like that, I’m tempted to say it’s just profoundly racist. It’s like saying that because they look different, they’re not white people, they don’t have the same rights. It’s something super wrong. But I don’t quite know how you unlock that." (Ycombinator).

The fawning comments of Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater, the world's largest hedgefund, regarding Wang Qishan, "the second most powerful man in the CCP" are jaw droppingly concerning: "a personal hero....Every time I speak with Wang, I feel like I get closer to cracking the unifying code that unlocks the laws of the universe" (203). Sounds like a sycophant or acolyte.
He also wrote:

"One of China's leaders who explained this concept to me told that the word 'country' consists of two characters, state and family, which influences how they view their role in looking after their state/family. One might say that the Chinese government is paternal.

For example, it regulates what types of video games are watched by children and how many hours a day they play them. As a broad generalization, when the interest of the country (like the family) is at odds with the interest of the individual, the interest of the country (like the interest of the family) should be favored over the interest of the individual.

Individuals are parts of a greater machine. As a result of this perspective, the system seeks to develop, promote and reward good character and good citizenship. For example it gives people a social credit score that rates the quality of their citizenship. And each person is expected to view themselves as parts of the greater whole. I'm not saying which system is better." (206)

Breathtaking and revealing. Cue Tears for Fears and "Everybody wants to rule the world."

What can be done is the subject of the ninth and final chapter: "Ban lobbying on behalf of Chinese military and intelligence linked companies, ban Chinese military and intelligence linked companies from appearing on American stock exchanges, and ban joint research by American universities, investors and corporations with Chinese military and intelligence projects." "Journalists need to openly ask questions about links to China and media companies need to insist on truth and transparency when it comes to their experts." "Wall Street firms need to consistently apply ESG standards to Chinese companies." "Use shareholder activism to hold corporate executives to account." Engagement has failed and must be replaced with reciprocity. U.S. newspapers cannot be distributed in China, so the CCP should not be allowed to own newspapers in the U.S. Same goes for Amazon/Alibaba, GE/Avic, etc., etc.

Besides Peter Thiel, who is on the right side of this? Well, Trump, Schumer, Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Mark Warner, Chris Coons, and Joe Manchin. Former CEO of Docusign Keith Krach.

And the final word belongs to Upton Sinclair: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding" (362).

The book is a revelation. There is too much detail for my taste, but those names will matter and be more meaningful to others. Yikes. The U.S.A. has been gifted to China wrapped up with a bow.