China’s Multifaceted Threat: A Clear and Present Danger to Both America and Australia

China under the Chinese Communist Party poses the most serious long-term strategic threat to both the United States and Australia. Through aggressive economic infiltration, land acquisition, technology theft, influence operations, and military expansion, Beijing is systematically undermining Western sovereignty and security. What the Counter-Currents analysis (linked below), highlights for America applies with equal force, and in some ways even greater immediacy, to Australia.

Economic and Food Security Penetration

In the United States, Chinese entities have gained control over critical nodes in the agricultural supply chain. Smithfield Foods, now majority-owned by a Chinese company, controls roughly a quarter of U.S. pork processing and vast tracts of farmland. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company ramped up exports to China while American shelves emptied, a textbook example of prioritising Beijing's interests over domestic needs. Chinese ownership of U.S. agricultural land has surged, often near sensitive military installations, raising legitimate espionage and sabotage concerns.

Australia faces a parallel, and arguably more acute, vulnerability. As a major exporter of iron ore, coal, and other critical resources, we have allowed deep economic dependence on China. Beijing has repeatedly used economic coercion against us (wine, barley, coal, lobsters) whenever we assert independence. Chinese investment in Australian farmland, mining interests, and critical infrastructure has raised repeated national security flags. Our universities and research institutions remain heavily entangled with Chinese entities, often in dual-use technologies that directly benefit the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

Military and Geopolitical Pressure

China's military modernisation and territorial aggression in the South China Sea, around Taiwan, and in the Indo-Pacific, directly threaten both nations. For the U.S., this means the pacing challenge to its global primacy. For Australia, it is an existential concern: any conflict over Taiwan would almost certainly draw us in due to our alliance with America, geographic position, and AUKUS commitments.

Recent developments, including China's rapid expansion of its navy, hypersonic weapons, and island-building, have shortened warning times. Australian intelligence and defence assessments consistently rank China as our primary strategic threat. The possibility of conflict within the next few years is no longer fringe speculation but a scenario actively war-gamed by Australian planners.

Influence, Espionage, and Internal Subversion

Both countries suffer from sophisticated Chinese influence operations: United Front work, espionage through academia and business, and elite capture. In the U.S., this extends to farmland data harvesting, lobbying that undermines tariffs and security measures, and cyber intrusions. In Australia, we have seen interference in politics, attempts to shape media narratives, and persistent espionage targeting defence and critical minerals sectors.

The CCP's National Intelligence Law ensures that Chinese companies and citizens operating abroad are tools of the state. This blurs the line between commercial activity and intelligence gathering, making genuine economic decoupling far more difficult.

Why This Threat Demands Realism, Not Denial

The bipartisan elite consensus in both nations, treating China primarily as an economic partner while downplaying security risks, has left us dangerously exposed. Australia's reliance on Chinese markets for exports and the U.S.'s entanglement in supply chains have created leverage that Beijing exploits ruthlessly.

A clear-headed response requires:

Diversifying critical supply chains and reducing dependence on China.

Strengthening domestic food, energy, and manufacturing resilience.

Tightening foreign investment screening, especially in agriculture, critical minerals, and technology.

Deepening alliances (AUKUS, Quad) while building credible conventional deterrence, if not nuclear weapons for Australia.

Honest public discussion of demographic, cultural, and strategic realities rather than empty slogans about "engagement."

China under its current regime it is a determined strategic competitor that views Western decline as both inevitable and desirable. Pretending otherwise has already cost us dearly. Both America and Australia must treat the China threat with the seriousness it deserves, before economic entanglement becomes irreversible strategic weakness, and communist colonisation.

https://counter-currents.com/2026/06/chinas-threat-to-american-security/