A pair of Trump allies are launching a new organization aimed at preventing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from overtaking American institutions, the Daily Caller has learned.
Former Acting Director of National Intelligence in the Trump Administration, Ric Grenell, and former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin are launching the “Protecting America Initiative,” which will work to support state lawmakers in passing legislation to limit the CCP’s growing influence in America, according to a press release obtained first by the Daily Caller. In its launch video, the group highlights several CCP threats they wish to address, including purchasing American farmland and Chinese nationals crossing the American border illegally. (RELATED: Biden Admin’s Watered Down Vetting Process For Chinese Illegal Immigrants Poses National Security Risk, Experts Warn)
“The threat from the Chinese Communist Party is on the rise, and their dangerous ideas have been allowed to infiltrate American culture. Our borders, critical infrastructure, higher education system, and agriculture industries are all under assault. Communist China is seeking to influence our country and erase our liberties,” Grenell, a senior advisor to the group, said in a statement to the Caller.
Since March 2021, the U.S. has seen a roughly 8,000% increase in Chinese illegal immigration, according to the House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability. The Heritage Foundation released a report in May stating that the United States was not adequately addressing the threat of Chinese ownership of American farmland. The think tank added that the country is ill-equipped to deal with such a threat. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Second-Largest Foreign Owner Of US Land Is A Chinese Communist Party Member)
The new organization calls for various legislative proposals to curb the growing threat of the CCP, including banning Chinese companies that import drugs such as fentanyl, requiring state infrastructure projects to buy supplies made in America and combatting China’s “efforts to steal our intellectual property.”
“Our biggest threat lies across the Pacific, Communist China. They’re on the march to influence and disrupt America from the inside out. Our farmland, food supply, education system, energy production, manufacturing chains, our national security, Communist China wants to control it all. We must act now to stop them. And it starts with state leaders who will recognize and respond to China’s threats,” the group’s launch video says.
Ahead of the organization’s launch, the Tyson Group released polling on American’s concerns regarding the CCP’s presence in the U.S. Forty-one percent of Americans believe that China is the biggest threat to U.S. national security, according to the poll. A majority of Americans, 68%, said that China poses a major threat to America as it lobbies politicians and buys influence, the poll shows.
“Every facet of American life is dealing with unprecedented Chinese influence, America’s farmers and small business owners are on an uneven playing field, our students are seeing their campuses being taken over by CCP ideas, and our border patrol agents are facing a record number of Chinese nationals coming across our border,” Zeldin, a senior advisor to the Protecting American initiative, said in a statement to the Caller. “We can no longer rely on a broken Washington swamp to stop this — we need state leaders from across the country to step up and protect all Americans from the growing China threat before it’s too late.”
