Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) on Monday unveiled a sweeping effort to address Chinese influence in the state, calling the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) attempts to influence domestic and international affairs “one of the most pervasive threats to American Security and property.”
“For the last decade, the Communist Party of China has been meticulous and deliberate in their infiltration across the globe,” DeSantis said, explaining the CCP’s long-term goals and interests “are antithetical to the basic tenets of the American Republic.”
The CCP, DeSantis said, has made a mission of their global expansion of power to steal intellectual property from businesses, government, and academic institutions “all to further fuel their global objectives.” He then stressed the importance of providing strategic safeguards addressing concerns of the CCP, and other foreign powers, influencing the government, as well as academia and the economy.
That starts with what DeSantis described as one of the CCP’s “primary targets”: The education system. He briefly touched on the Chinese theft of American research, adding that the U.S. must “eliminate any tolerance of clandestine foreign influence in our schools.”
