THREAD This week the @FreeBeacon ran an important story about Max Baucus, who compared the President to Hitler on Chinese state media while pocketing money as an advisor to key Chinese companies. The report touches on a key theme that's worth unpacking. https://freebeacon.com/national-security/obamas-man-in-china-now-beijings-man-in-washington/

While many of the details in the story were shocking, the bottom line shouldn't have been surprising. The CCP was born to take advantage of the swamp. The Party spent its formative years waging an insurgency within China, relying on intelligence activities and irregular warfare.

The CCP credits its underground influence operations for playing a decisive role in its victory in the civil war. As @jgarnaut has argued, many of the key individuals in the CCP today—including Xi —are actually the sons of these espionage artists from the Party’s earliest days.

The Party’s core identity, as well as that of its leaders, is tied to these types of influence operations, which the Party calls United Front work. The Party works through elites in capitals worldwide to advance this agenda, connecting economic incentives w/ political compliance.

Individuals, corporations, or countries that adapt pro-CCP talking points and policies receive lucrative rewards. Those who challenge the Party orthodoxy are punished. We’ve seen this time and again. The CCP relies on foreign elites to promote its interests.

Is a former Senator and US Ambassador comparing the President to Hitler on the state channel of a communist dictatorship that has put more than a million of its own citizens into concentration camps gross? Of course. But that's only part of the problem.

We have to be much more vigilant about how the CCP is using the swamp against us. I have legislation that gets at part of this problem, but sunlight is the ultimate disinfectant. The status quo is not acceptable.