Since 2016, what Public Policy issues are motivating voters this week and take a look at Political Trends that can give us clues. And we go live now to hear about u. S. Relations with china from assistant secretary of state for east asianing and pacific affairs, david stilwell. The events hosted by the Hoover Institution. Pacific affairs, david r. Stilwell, who is joining us from tokyo today and will address the theme of todays session, covert, coercive and corrupt, counterrerring Chinese Party malign influence in free societies. Following his address, he will engage in a conversation with two leading china scholars, orville shell and arianna movstro. But first, its my pleasure to introduce condoleezza rice. Im delighted to open this session of our project at hoover on chinese sharp power. And i especially want to welcome assistant secretary of state for east asian affairs, david stilwell. This project, i think, is one of the most important that were engaged in because we face an extraordinary challenge can with a rising china. Ever since dunn shoo punning dunn shaw ping brought china out of its isolation and where we recognized the peoples republic of china, where we had come, eventually, to a onechina policy, continuing our obligations to taiwan to help it defend itself, but really with an expectation that with this country of more than a billion people and economic potential that was potentially unknown in the history of the International System, there was really a decision that we needed to integrate china. And that belief, that integration u. S. Narrative, if you integrationist narrative, if you will, really dominated american policy for four decades. There were expectations that this China Integrated into the International System would be a net contributor. As my colleague bob zoellick once called it, a responsible stakeholder. And, indeed, there were some benefits to chinas integration. Of course, 500 Million People were lifted out of poverty. And, of course, china did contribute to International Economic growth. First by being the lowcost provider of labor, but also being a place where people could manufacture, where they could assemble. And so china was a contributor to the International Economy. There were also hopes, though, that over time china would be not just a responsible stakeholder, but a more liberal society. There were those who believed that china might go all the way to democracy. But even those who didnt see that as a possibility believed that the exposure to the International System, the exposure to the outside world would ultimately lead to governments in china that were more tolerant of their own people. That has not happened. And there was always a risk. There was always the risk that by having a closed society with an open International System, that that closed society would eventually take advantage of the openness of that system. For so many years, that system had been dominated by democracies. Not every country was in the International Economy as it emerged after world war ii as a democracy. But the most powerful countries were; the United States, great britain, the countries of europe, japan. And so there was a harmony between the domestic politics and the domestic system and the checks and balances of democracy and the openness of the International System. For the first time, we have a very, very powerful state that has been admitted to that International Economy, to that open system and has remained and even become more authoritarian at home. And so the question before us is how to prevent this authoritarian regime from taking advantage of the benefits of openness and, indeed, taking advantage of those countries that are democratic and open themselves. We have to understand how china is coercing. We have to understand how china is influencing. And we have to understand how china is using the benefits of the International Economy and the open system to increase its military power so that its more assertive role in places like the South China Sea and, indeed, in its aggressive behavior toward taiwan is actually using military power that has benefited from this connection to the open system. This isnt the cold war. The cold war was an ideological struggle between the United States and the soviet union, but the soviet union was a military giant. Chai that is a tech china is a technological giant and well on its way to becoming a military giant as well. And so this is an incredible challenge. It is a challenge though, too, to our values. To be true to those values while not allowing ourselves to be taken advantage of. We do not want a situation in which innocent people, just because they are of asian descent, are somehow held in suspicion whether they are citizens or green cardholders or visitors. We want to remain open to the world and to them, and they do not we do not want them to feel intimidated in any way. We want our universities to be cognizant of what is going on in some of the programs that have been sponsored by china. We want universities to be cognizant of what is going on in our frontier technologies labs and a. I. And quantum computing. We want our universities to be cognizant that there are the those who, under the guise of a fellowship or a ph. D. Program might, in fact, be those who would go back and help the pla to make Chinese Military power even stronger. We want to be cognizant of that. But we also want to remain universities which are open. And we want to influence the next generation of Chinese Students because one day we have to hope that that belief, that integration into the International System, openness to the world will, indeed, have an impact on china too. First, we need to understand what were facing. We need to understand all of the ways that china carries out policies of coercion or influence or increasing its military capability at our expense, using our knowledge. We need to understand the relationship between the communist party, the pla and Research Enterprises in china with whom we would then have relationships. We need to understand, too, our tools for dealing with it. And our tools are many. A free peoples, i believe, free peoples will always triumph. But free peoples have to be cognizant, and they have to be aware of what is going on around them. Now, i want to say one other word about a truth telling, and that is this that when we tell the truth, we are at our strongest. Uma veteran of the old cold war and the soviet union and the marvelous way in which at the end of the cold war it was clear that our values had triumphed. Im often asked about some of the tools that we used in that time. And one that always comes up because people are concerned about chinese influence operations and chinese efforts to cause dissension in our systems, and im always asked, well, what about Radiofree Europe and voice of america which, obviously, had a huge impact on the outcome the of the cold war . And i say the truth about vows vows voice of america and Radiofree Europe is that they told the truth. They told the truth to a population that knew that their government was not telling them the truth. And so we need to use whatever tools we can to let it be known what china is doing, to let it be known in africa, to let it be known in europe, to let it be known to the degree that we can in asia and, certainly, to the degree that we can in china itself. Because ultimately, that is our best tool. Truth telling. Again, i am very excited about this project because i think it does give us a chance to understand what we face and to Design Strategies to deal with it. I want to thank larry and his colleagues in the china sharp power project. Again, i want to welcome Deputy Assistant secretary stilwell, and i want to say to all of you watching out there, this is a battle we have to win. And we will. Thank you very much. It was great to be with you. Thank you so much, secretary rice, for those inspirational remarks. Now its my honor to introduce the assistant secretary of state for east asian and pacific affairses, david r. Stilwell. Before joining the astronaut department in this state department in this increasingly pivotal role, or assistant secretary stilwell had a distinguished 35year career in the United States air force, retiring in 2015 in the rank of Brigadier General as the asia adviser to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. During his air force career, he served multiple tour thes of duty in japan and korea as a linguist, a Fighter Pilot and a commander and as defense atta i they at the attache at the u. S. Embassy in beijing from 20112013. From 20172019 he served as director of the China Strategic Focus Group at the u. S. Indopacific command in hawaii. In june 2019 he assumed the position of assistant secretary. In addition to his b. S. Degree in history from the air force academy, assistant secretary stilwell also earned a masters degree in Asian Studies and chinese language from the university of hawaii, andawarded in and he was awarded in 2015 the department of Defense Superior Service award. Assistant secretary stillwell, thank you so much stilwell, thank you so much for joining us. Hey, thank you for the introduction and for the opportunity here to explain and elaborate on all were doing here at the state department. Greetings from tokyo. Being in the region is what i do. Im happy to be here and, again, i is a good chance to work with stanford and hoover and asia society, heroes like larry diamond, orville, again, people ive long looked up to and studied and read and benefited from. And also its great to share a stage with secretary condoleezza rice, again, its a real honor to be here. I really appreciate her summary. It tees up what im going to present here well, especially the part about truth telling. You know, one of my goals in this job has been messaging, to tell our story better and to tell the truth. And its ironic, but its actually symptomatic that both the soviet union and chinese have the word truth in them. And yet the opposite is generally true. And so the topic of chinese influence and corrupt, coercive and covert activities is especially meaningful right now. And what youre seeing the administration doing, as i talk about this, hopefully, itll make sense, itll be coherent. So the topic is the fact that the Chinese CommunistParty Challenges our free and open society against secular secretary race made that rice, made that point color lu. The prosperity of our friends around the world are at risk, and it hinges on how we meet this challenge. Effort is required not just by policy makers and National Security professionals, but by all elements of society as secretary rice anticipated i would say. And not just in america, but everywhere. Which is, again, part of why were trying to get the word out in other fora. A major worldwide defensive enterprise of this kind is difficult, but its a noble undertaking. The foundation is a Common Threat assessment to the Chinese Communist party is highly capable, ambitious and is also hostile to our basic political principles of democracy, openness and individual dignity. Its important, first of all, that we recognize this challenge. I think were there. The narrative has changed significantly are over the last year. It is, but its also necessary that we give the priority it deserves despite many pressing matters that inevitably demand our attention. So the Trump Administration in 2017 National Security strategy centered on the observation that we are in a geopolitical competition between free and repressive visions of world order. Secretary pompeo said that china is the first challenge he thinks of every day when he wakes up. The Chinese CommunistParty Strategy infiltrates targets around the world, which is why its important for all institutions in our society, private and government, to understand the strategy and adapt measures to manage the risk, to counter coercion and to protect free expression. The Hoover Institution has been exemplary in this area including through its 2018 report on chinas influence in american interests, promoting vigilance. So today i would everyone size three points. First, influence and interference operations are fundamental to how the Chinese Communist party engages with the world. And thats with all of us. We might prefer to think of china as is simply a trade partner or the home of great civilizations, but the ccp today has a taken an adversarial stance toward its neighbors. Not just today, its been a longterm process where were recognizing it today. Also this adversarial response touches its neighbors and all other democratic and other societies like the u. S. And the rest of the world. The goals are not stability or live and let live respect for the sovereignty of other lawabiding nations. No, the strategy is aggressive, and its intrusive. It not only rejects our Democratic Political principles, but it sees them as a crime of vulnerability that it can exploit. Chinas role in the world today cannot be understood without a reference of the wide array of malign activities the ccp undertakes to influence our societies in ways that are covert, coercive and corrupting. We borrowed that language from john garre know in australia whos been a leader in the stall january government, has led very well in this endeavor. So i want to give credit to the folks who coined that term. Second, the principal reciprocity is vital to understanding this problem and in countering it. Reciprocity is basic of in or international relations. Youve got to give to get. You send your cup lo mats to my country diplomats to my country, and ill send them to yours. I open my markets and you open your markets as well. Yet for decades we and other countries made exceptions for china, but we allowed the communist party to engage with our societies on a nonreciprocal basis, and beijing exploited the imbalance. And now our insistence on reciprocity a long overdue eventment that was the second point. Third, coordination among allies and partners is imperative. This problem is global. In many ways we is and others around the world are still only waking up to the mass, the scale of this problem. We benefit from sharing information and ideas. Bay young prefers to exploit its side against individual countries in a bilateral fashion. It is often only by acting in concert that other countries can shift the calculus in favor of rest process few, transparency and freedom. And so we must do so. The bilateral aspect is noteworthy in that the narrative out of beijing is often the u. S. Versus china. Weve been working very hard to shift that. Its not just us, its many other likeminded, especially out of the e. U. Of late is impressive. So a lot of this things on the whole hinges on the whole concept of the united [inaudible] the world is increasing hi aware of how the ccp is using it foreign [inaudible] to influence, interfere and coerce. The awareness is disturbing and even shocking for many people because for decades the u. S. And other countries forged links with china based on the optimistic, good faith expectation that showered prosperity and trust would result from our diplomacy, our trade and our investment. It worked so many times in the past. But weve had media with, academic and the people exchanges also falling under that same assumption. But the sad and dangerous reality that the ccp has chosen to weaponize these engagements to its advantage, and it uses them as channels for malign purposes. Again, primarily to maintain its position and to advance its position, to accelerate its growth and development. Beijing officials claim to seek, quote, onewin exchanges winwin exchanges. They claim to practice noninterphoenix in other countries affairs. This is an important point. This insistence onion interference on noninterference is interesting when you see the totality of this activity. And i think we should shine some light on this. In reality, the conduct is systematically predatory and hegemonic. As xi jinping wants control and at least he wants a veto in Public Discourse and political decisions globally world over. So this is what guides its foreign interference activities. Activities that china calls united front work, and we better understand this political warfare. Xi jinping called the united front a magic weapon of the Chinese Communist party and mao saw it the same way. So how does it work . Ill give you a couple visible examples that, again, once we are wake to the problem become unbelievably obvious. The united front interference in australia has produced years of cascading news headlines. An up and coming senator was forced to resign over improper ties to the chinese, beijing donor. Numerous senior officials retired into jobs with entities controlled by beijing. Advertising boycotts wering organized against chineselanguage newspapers that wont tow beijings line. The intelligence chief warned of the catastrophic harm australias subject to as a result of espionage, interference