For years, Washington has been warned about the Chinese Communist Party’s growing infiltration into America’s government, economy, education system, media, and even military. Yet, under the Obama and Biden administrations, China was allowed to steadily expand its reach while U.S. institutions grew increasingly dependent on Chinese investment and influence. President Trump, during his first term, took concrete steps to reverse this trend by launching the China Initiative in 2018.
Led by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and run through the Department of Justice’s National Security Division in coordination with the FBI, the program aimed to combat Chinese economic espionage, trade secret theft, and influence operations. It opened thousands of investigations into CCP-linked activities and was one of the most aggressive counterintelligence efforts in U.S. history.
In 2022, however, the Biden administration abruptly terminated the initiative. Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen justified the move by citing “perceptions” that the program unfairly targeted Chinese Americans and residents of Chinese origin, reflecting concerns about racial profiling. In doing so, the administration effectively fell for one of Beijing’s most effective tactics—weaponizing accusations of racism to silence criticism and dismantle counterintelligence measures.
The decision left the U.S. without a dedicated program to counter CCP espionage just as Chinese cyberattacks, intellectual property theft, and influence operations were surging.
A House Oversight Committee report released in October 2024 warned that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is waging unrestricted political warfare against the United States with growing success. The report described the CCP as a totalitarian regime that represses its citizens, conducts global surveillance, fuels the U.S. fentanyl crisis, and seeks to undermine American democracy.
It also criticized the Biden administration for dismantling Trump’s China Initiative, noting that the Justice Department’s decision to end the program under political pressure represented a victory for CCP psychological warfare. By prioritizing optics over security, the administration abandoned one of America’s most effective tools against Chinese infiltration, leaving federal agencies fragmented, uncoordinated, and increasingly vulnerable to Beijing’s influence.
Led by Chairman James Comer, the committee examined 25 federal agencies to assess Washington’s response to CCP influence and found no unified, whole-of-government strategy under the Biden-Harris administration. Instead, agencies operated independently with inconsistent and often weak results. Most failed to recognize or respond to CCP infiltration, elite capture, and influence operations targeting U.S. institutions, businesses, universities, and cultural organizations. The investigation concluded that the United States is already engaged in a “new Cold War,” but only China is fully committed to winning it.
The report, titled “CCP Political Warfare: Federal Agencies Urgently Need a Government-Wide Strategy,” found that the Biden administration has not built upon previous efforts to counter Chinese infiltration launched under President Trump. It cited the example of Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz’s ties to CCP-linked entities as evidence of elite capture and highlighted that only the Drug Enforcement Administration had acknowledged CCP operations, specifically China’s role in fueling the fentanyl crisis. However, even this effort lacked coordination across the broader federal system.
According to the committee, the federal government has failed to understand or confront the CCP’s strategy of unrestricted warfare, a campaign that extends beyond espionage and trade to include manipulation of social, political, and economic systems inside the U.S.
The report urged immediate action, calling for a coordinated, transparent national strategy that recognizes the CCP’s political warfare, unifies agency efforts, and mobilizes public awareness. Comer warned that continued inaction has left Americans vulnerable and that the nation’s response to this challenge will determine whether the United States remains the world’s leading power in the century ahead.
The House Oversight Committee identified widespread weaknesses across federal agencies in confronting Chinese Communist Party (CCP) political warfare, citing the Biden-Harris administration’s failure to implement a unified strategy. Without centralized direction, agencies have been left to act independently, leading to confusion, complacency, and, in many cases, cooperation that inadvertently benefits Beijing.
The report found that the Department of Education lacks any plan to protect students from CCP harassment or influence through groups such as Confucius Institutes and Chinese Students and Scholars Associations. NASA was criticized for praising China’s lunar achievements instead of acknowledging the ongoing U.S.-China space race. The Treasury Department, eager to preserve Chinese investment in U.S. debt, has ignored China’s economic warfare and the global debt trap created by its Belt and Road Initiative.
The Department of Agriculture has no strategy to secure America’s food supply from Chinese control and has failed to monitor CCP-linked purchases of farmland near U.S. military bases. Similarly, the National Science Foundation recognizes that China poses the greatest research security threat but refuses to treat the PRC as a distinct danger, relying on ineffective “country-neutral” programs.
The State Department was faulted for lacking even a basic understanding of “political warfare” and for failing to track the massive number of agreements with China, which officials estimated could number close to one million. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has neglected its duty to warn Americans about the risks of Chinese-made goods.
The Justice Department was accused of lacking the expertise and resolve to confront CCP infiltration after dismantling Trump’s China Initiative, which had focused exclusively on prosecuting CCP espionage and influence operations. The Department of Commerce has ignored the growing problem of CCP elite capture at state and local levels, while the Environmental Protection Agency has allowed China to exploit U.S. green energy policy through front organizations and trade groups.
Finally, the Department of Transportation was singled out for dismissing concerns about potential espionage in Chinese-made container cranes operating in U.S. ports, with officials claiming that it was “normal” for such equipment to transmit data back to China. Overall, the committee concluded that the absence of a government-wide strategy has left nearly every major agency vulnerable to CCP infiltration, negligence, or manipulation.
In short The committee warned that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has deeply infiltrated nearly every major sector of American life, through a strategy of elite capture designed to advance Beijing’s interests and weaken U.S. independence. Despite long-standing warnings, including the 1999 Cox Report that revealed China’s use of commercial and political ties to obtain U.S. technology, federal agencies have failed to counter this threat.
Expert testimony before the committee described how Chinese spies routinely infiltrate U.S. institutions, while American scholars and think tanks dependent on access to China often self-censor or promote Beijing’s narratives. Dr. Robert Atkinson testified that the CCP targets “pretty much all the elites,” exploiting them as “human assets” to steal intellectual property and data, while Michael Casey, Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said he was “stunned” by how many companies fail to understand their own insider threats.
The report noted that federal agencies and business leaders have not only failed to combat elite capture but often reinforced it through direct engagement with CCP officials. It cited examples such as Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns attending a 2023 dinner in San Francisco honoring Xi Jinping, where American executives applauded Xi’s speech about “friendship” between the U.S. and China.
The committee argued that such events legitimize CCP influence and send the wrong message to the American public. Former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez’s praise of China as “the most attractive market in the world” was cited as further evidence of elite complacency. Even the Department of Justice has acknowledged that no company with major business interests in China is immune from CCP coercion.
The committee also highlighted the case of former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who represents DJI, a Chinese drone company controlling over 70 percent of the global drone market. DJI has been accused of collecting intelligence for the CCP and attempting to bypass U.S. restrictions through partner companies. Reports indicated Lynch sought to have DJI removed from the Pentagon’s list of Communist Chinese Military Companies, despite national security concerns.
Beyond economic and political infiltration, the CCP also conducts what the report called “cognitive warfare,” the manipulation of information, perception, and behavior to shape global opinion in China’s favor. Through information and media warfare, Beijing seeks narrative dominance by controlling news coverage, influencing social media platforms, restricting foreign journalists, and spreading propaganda that portrays China as strong, stable, and indispensable to the global economy.
These combined strategies, elite capture, economic infiltration, and cognitive warfare, form part of the CCP’s broader campaign to subvert American institutions, manipulate global perception, and win the ongoing cold war against the United States without firing a shot.
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