President Donald Trump struck a conciliatory tone during his trip to China. He returned from his Beijing summit with Xi Jinping yesterday full of praise for the “great leader,” who is, in Trump’s estimations, “an incredible guy.” The summit was “very successful, world-renowned, and unforgettable,” according to the President, who insisted that “a lot of different problems were settled.” But there’s one problem that hasn’t been addressed: the growing number of Chinese operations on US soil.

Last week Eileen Wang, the mayor of the southern Californian city of Arcadia agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent of China. She was once regarded as a rising political star, named “woman of the year” in 2024 by Californian Congresswoman Judy Chu, who applauded her “strong voice, leadership, and dedication to serving her community.” Her plea came just two days before a New York man was found guilty of acting as a Chinese agent, having been accused of operating a “secret police station” on behalf of Beijing.

The latest cases are “just the tip of the iceberg,” according to Michael Lucci, the founder of Armor Action, a conservative group that monitors threats from China. While the Washington DC based Center for Strategic and International Studies warned last week that Beijing has “aggressively ramped up its offensive irregular warfare activities against the United States.”

China’s espionage and influence operations are extensive. They range from attempts to intimidate dissidents living in the US to the peddling of Communist party propaganda, the recruiting of members of the military to steal state secrets to the theft of artificial........

© The Spectator