Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich raised red flags over America's apparent inability to deal with a growing threat from China, and he argued that one needs to look no further than the recent Chinese response to a tweet from one NBA executive.
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On Oct. 4, Houston Rockets' general manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for Hong Kong protesters, who are demanding more autonomy from the repressive Chinese communist government. The Chinese government's response was fast and fierce, ordering Chinese state TV to cancel broadcasts of NBA games. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that the league suffered substantial "financial consequences" and he even claimed that Chinese officials even asked him to fire Morey.
"You have to recognize that one of the lessons of the National Basketball Association fight was that these are people who are very prepared to apply enormous blackmail to get what they want," said Gringrich on Fox Nation's "Deep Dive." "We're just not prepared to deal with these people."
Gingrich says in his new book "Trump vs. China: Facing America's Greatest Threat" that the United States is poised for a generational conflict with China, and he is concerned that the American public has not yet come to that realization.
"Just as with the NBA, you now have an increasing Chinese willingness to dictate in the United States what people are going to be allowed to see," said Gingrich, pointing to the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, which is quickly gaining worldwide popularity.
"Take the example of TikTok," Gringrich told the "Deep Dive" panel. "They are now setting up rules so that... they take off anything on TikTok that might refer to Hong Kong. Anything that refers to Tiananmen Square.
"We have not come to grips yet," he said. "There are going to be wrenching changes, frankly, defeating Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan was pretty wrenching. Defeating the Soviet Empire took basically from 1946 to 1991... we actually need an 'all of society' approach."
Wall Street Journal Editorial page assistant editor and Fox Nation host James Freeman pushed back on that comparison.
"Comparing them to Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union... [China] hasn't invaded all of their Asian neighbors, is this analogy kind of unhelpful if we can continue to have a basically peaceful but challenging economic relationship?" Freeman asked.
Gingrich maintained that, in fact, the Chinese are in alliance with the Russians and noted the two countries are running joint military projects.
"If we have to wait for Pearl Harbor to actually have our ships bombed to decide this is a problem we won't have learned much from history," Gingrich responded.
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In conclusion, Gingrich said he believes President Donald Trump is right to confront the Chinese in regard to trade and associated issues, but this challenge will not be resolved by one administration.
"The Chinese communists have been so coddled by the West and the West has lied to itself so deeply that you are in such a deep ditch right now that you can't jump out of it in one negotiation," Gingrich said.
To watch the entire discussion on "Deep Dive", visit Fox Nation and join today.
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