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US Intel Director Warns in WSJ Op-Ed China Could Be Greatest Threat to Democracy Since WWII

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US Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe is sounding an alarm about China, calling the communist country "the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom worldwide since World War II."

Ratcliffe oversees all of America's intelligence agencies and provides the daily briefing for the president about threats facing the US. 

In an op-ed published in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, Ratcliffe warns that China intends to dominate not only the US but the entire world. 

"The intelligence is clear: Beijing intends to dominate the US and the rest of the planet economically, militarily, and technologically," he wrote. "Many of China's major public initiatives and prominent companies offer only a layer of camouflage to the activities of the Chinese Communist Party."

"I call its approach of economic espionage 'rob, replicate and replace'," Ratcliffe noted. "China robs U.S. companies of their intellectual property, replicates the technology, and then replaces the U.S. firms in the global marketplace."

The DNI also pointed out in his op-ed that China steals US defense technology in order to bring President Xi Jinping's plan to fruition with the goal of making China "the world's foremost military power." 

As CBN News has reported, since taking power eight years ago, President Xi has massively overhauled China's military, economy, and political influence. Now, Xi is preparing China for global dominance.

Tom Miller has documented Beijing's rise in the book, China's Asian Dream: Empire Building Along the New Silk Road.

Miller says since taking the reins, President Xi has been on a trajectory of preparing China to be the world's dominant power.  

"Under Xi Jinping, China has been very, very deliberately trying to realize its ambition to become the global superpower," he asserted.

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And Xi wants to achieve that goal within the next three decades.

"He talks about this centenary goal, so the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, by 2049 China wants to be the global superpower," Miller told CBN News from his home in London.

Chinese scholars say it's also part of the 67-year-old leader's deep belief that his country has a divine right to rule the world.

"The 'mandate of heaven' is from China's imperial past where Chinese emperors believed that they not only had the right, but they were compelled by heaven to rule the world and there's this notion of Tianxia, or 'all under heaven'," said Gordon Chang, an Asia analyst.

America Depends on China for Prescription Drugs

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a number of problems about the US and China's relationship. One most notable thing is how America depends on China for prescription drugs in a major way.

What has been an underlying concern for the past couple of decades is now coming to the surface.

Over the last 20 years, the United States outsourced much of its drug manufacturing to China. The lower cost made it seem like a good idea at the time. Now, in the middle of a pandemic, the US could find itself at China's mercy.

"This is very hidden from the American public. It took me three years to figure this out," said author Rosemary Gibson.

She wrote China Rx: Exposing the Risks of America's Dependence on China for Medicine two years ago. In it, she chronicled America's over-reliance on China for generic prescription drugs and pointed out a potential result of that dependence.

"And that prediction was in the event of a natural disaster or a global pandemic if China shuts the door on exports on sending us these important products, the United States could end up standing in line with other countries to get these core components for our medicines," Gibson said.

Two years later, COVID-19 is rocking the world, setting the stage for Gibson's warning to possibly come true. 

Right now, the US buys generic drugs from China for numerous conditions including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Diabetes, high blood pressure, HIV AIDS, and depression.

"We can't make the generic antibiotics that mothers give to their children for ear infections or that you take for bronchitis or pneumonia, or even last-resort antibiotics that you take for very serious infections," Gibson explained.

She says that's because China controls the core chemicals to make the drugs. She noted China makes ten percent of our generic drugs, and with that amount growing, they could soon name their price.

"Our dependence will be total," Gibson warned.

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