Saints, Spies and Sinners

A True Tale About an Ancient Kingdom and the U.S. (and You and Me)

I LIVE IN A TOWN named after a saint, but I won’t tell you which one because then you might be able to find me. And I don’t want to be found.

What I will tell you is that I live on the nation’s Right Coast, and when I say ‘Right’ some will think preferred, and some will think right wing, and others will think, well, it’s simply the right place for him. But I realize most will likely do a Rhett Butler and not give a damn.

I also realize why many Californians will immediately think, Nah, you’re so not on the right coast. We are. And from where they stand – in the sun by the Pacific – I won’t argue against them. But what I’m talking about is the Right Edge of the nation, the sharper edge, the Boston to D.C. corridor, the old power center, where legislation mixes with lots of cash, and all the leaders in fashion, finance, governance, Ivys, splashy musicals, impressive museums, everything that prevails, and everyone with a lever, a lobbyist, or a private island mixes together in the biggest cocktail ever stirred by a demon bartender or a demi-god in a tailored Italian silk suit.

Speaking of islands, I live on one. Not a private one, mind you. A very public one, crammed with millions of people, a whale of an island, 110 miles long, which spans from the famed Brooklyn Bridge (p.s. it is for sale, and if you’re interested, I know a guy) to the Lighthouse at The End, our end, commissioned by George Washington himself, and which, on the eve of the nation’s 250^th birthday can be seen blinking and intermittently weeping.

Now, in my small, saintly town I remain largely inconspicuous, which is to my benefit. I mean, I used to jog all over town, but that was nearly twenty years ago, and I no longer look like my jogging self and so I walk around barely noticed. I tend to think people look right through me, which is fine. I feel invisible and, as stated, that condition suits my task.

FIRST, NO, I’m not a spook. But I am on the lookout for Chinese infiltrators and have been for some time. My day job was in advertising and design, but I did not get my degree in Fine Arts or Marketing Communications. I got my degree in Chinese Studies years back, when I lived on the other coast, when the Golden State shined even brighter (the Chinese used to call California jyou jin shan, Old Gold Mountain). Back then, it was the perfect place for someone in their teens and twenties to be, and attend a U.C. Okay, it still is, but sometimes way-back nostalgia outshines present realities, right?

So what gives with you and the Chinese? you might be wondering. Fair question. So, no, I’m not a bigot, a white nationalist, or a fear-ridden, far right America for Americans person. I admire the Chinese culture, several groups don’t consider me white, I’m not particularly fearful, and I surely don’t vote with that dense, jingoistic crowd. But if one were to rewrite the movie The Manchurian Candidate for the mid-2020s, the script would surely change, and dramatically so.

LET ME START HERE. I’ll try and paint you a real-world picture. Many years back, on the northern tip of my township, near the gilded north shore, there was an upscale private school that the younger brother of an old girlfriend attended. Back in the 1970s and 1980s most of the kids were white, with a few, very few, wealthy South Americans and a couple of even wealthier Saudi youth. But no mistaking it, the place was first and last for rich white kids, and it was a surely a safe and rustic haven, complete with horses and a stable, which many affluent Caucasians tend to like.

Fast forward 20 years, into the 2000s, where we took our then 9-year-old son to check out the summer program, a day camp, held at that very same private school. But while walking around on the introductory tour that early June I quickly noticed that the campus street signs were in both English and Chinese. Curious, I thought. Then we came to an open-air corridor which led to two classrooms, and as I peeked into the classroom on the left, all the heads in the class turned back toward me. And all of them were Asian. Every single one.

The school’s tour guide informed me that about ten years back there were a couple of Asian students. Word soon spread overseas and by 2007 or 2008, all the students were Asian. I wondered how affluent Chinese parents were able to supplant affluent American parents in a coastal private school on relatively affluent Long Island, just over 50 miles from New York City.

Anyhow, my Chinese surveillance work initially began in Japanese restaurants. You see, the thing is, over the last 20 or so years, savvy Chinese business people realized two things: the popularity of Chinese restaurants was declining, while the taste for Japanese food was on the rise. They also realized that 98% of Americans would have no idea whatsoever that their hosts and servers were Chinese and not Japanese.

But I knew! I could discern Mandarin from Japanese and would often bust them by saying sye-sye (thank you) when served. Some would ignore me, others would smile. As I got to know a few, I asked where they came from and almost every single one – you guessed it – came not from Brooklyn but China. How did they get here? And how many Japanese restaurants in the northeast had Chinese owners and waiters? And how were young adults from China able to get so many Green cards or otherwise stay here? Did they simply let their travel visas expire, decide to take their chances, and stay? Honestly, I still don’t know.

WAIT, THERE’S MORE. One town away from where we live is a large state university. For my day job I went there often enough, as I created ads, brochures and other marketing materials for four of the university's departments. When I first visited the campus there were a smattering of Asians. After about eight or ten years the student body was almost 40% Asian, mostly Chinese. It was astounding. I believe they had to eventually put a cap on Asian enrollment. Aside from some academically average white and Black kids getting pushed aside, most of these Chinese students were… from China. The majority were not Americans.

You like foreign students studying in American colleges and universities? I do too. But check out these stats: In the academic year 2008/09 there were just over 98,000 students from China studying at U.S. universities. Ten years later, in academic year 2018/19, there were about 368,500 Chinese students here, an increase of 400% (note who was in the White House 2017 -2020. Under the Biden Administration, Chinese students allowed to attend U.S colleges faced restrictions, so the numbers went down. In the academic year 2023/24, the number of Chinese students in America was 277,400, so down about 25% from 5 years back).

Now, most of these Chinese students are very bright and ambitious. But a number of these students came from the powerful and prominent Chinese Red Army. Some were prepped and trained at the more powerful MSS, The Ministry of State Security. What percentage? Our intelligence services can only guess. If it’s only 5%, that equals around 14,000 Chinese nationals in any given year gathering intelligence as well as data and having access to our great research labs and university super computers, and more.

As for those who stay, for every seven international students studying here, three out of seven get a job in the U.S. Five years ago, that totaled over 458,000 foreign students working here. And who sends the most students here, by far? China. “Chinese nationals make up the largest portion of international students coming to the U.S., accounting for more than 280,000 visas in 2023 out of the 600,000 given by the State Department.” How many Chinese nationals are now working in finance, computing, medicine, academia, and industries with sensitive data? Likely well over a million. Perhaps double that. Anything to concern us here?

Okay, many of my more liberal and kindhearted Substack readers may smell a foul mix of racism and paranoia. Some will label this unduly alarmist or flat-out anti-Asian. Nope, I still deeply admire the Chinese and Japanese cultures (I got my degree in Chinese Studies and went on to do some Master’s work in Asian Studies out of admiration, affinity for their philosophies, and deep curiosity. I was not inclined to join the CIA).

BUT DO CONSIDER how many military, software and tech products the Chinese have stolen from us and then reverse engineered -- computers, cars and consumer products, too. Over the last 30 years the level of technological theft has been staggering. Consider too the recent massive hack of at least eight major U.S. telecommunication companies, with millions of individual mobile phone users’ calling history and stored personal data affected in this far-reaching hack. The Chinese wormed their way into police departments, political circles (both Trump’s and Biden/Harris’), and perhaps my phone or yours. Regular citizens are affected and at risk here. Sorry, my liberal friends, while most Chinese people are fine folk, and surely aspirational, hardworking and often studious, the Chinese government is not a benevolent force or America’s ally. So…

As for the ‘sinners’ from the title, that would be the repressive, aggressive, totalitarian leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, who are many things, but are surely not the friends of democracy, individual liberty, human rights, and America.

Now please know, I wrote this piece as a wake-up call, and primarily for my moderate, liberal and very progressive friends. Look, I vote for you and with you. I care about most things you care about, believe me. But when you continually, vociferously put endless concern about racism in 2024 America over national security, people across the country hear you. And many are no longer inclined to vote with you or for you.