China Economy Threat With Asha Castleberry-Hernandez
Is China the greatest economic threat of our time? As global tensions rise, the impact of China's expanding influence is felt more than ever—both internationally and at home. In this episode, we sit down with
Asha Castleberry-Hernandez, a national security expert and former Biden-Harris appointee, to break down what this means for America's future. From trade imbalances to surveillance tactics, we uncover the real risks and explore actionable solutions. Don't miss this crucial conversation!
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China Economy Threat With Asha Castleberry-Hernandez
Watch What You Buy From China
We have a very exciting episode where we're going to talk about the China threat with Asha Castleberry-Hernandez. Asha is the first US National Security Expert and Foreign Policy Executive, Strategist, Author, former Biden-Harris political appointee, Army veteran, and Academic Professor.
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Asha, welcome to the show. It's nice to see you.
It's nice to see you.
We're going to talk about a subject that I know you know a lot about. To give you a little heads up about this show, what's on our hearts about this show is to show people threats, but not to scare them, tell them what's going on, and then give them solutions from experts like you. They get an action guide from us that's going to come back to you. They're going to be able to see the episode again as well as a written document and ways to get back to your written material, who you are, and all the cool stuff that you do. What I like to do is ask some questions that I feel like the audience would like to know about from you. Is that cool?
Yes.
My first question is, as a security expert, please tell us about China, what the problems are in the country, and what you know about it. There was a Treasury attack. Tell us what your take is on that as the expert in this field.
Strategic Competition And U.S. National Security Priorities
Thank you so much. This is a wonderful opportunity to be part of this amazing show, TheWorldWideThreat.com. This is an amazing opportunity to discuss our 21st-century national security threats and how they impact us here at home. The role of China in the 21st-century international system is very important to discuss because not only are we experiencing the rise, but it's impacting us more domestically. The unfortunate piece to this is that many Americans don't know how it impacts us here at home. I'm here to help explain it.
As far as looking at the context of China and its background, I want to go back to 2018 during the Trump administration when General Mattis, at that time Secretary of Defense Mattis, introduced to the country and the world that the United States is shifting its national security priorities on looking at this new era of strategic competition. He explained thoroughly that we are in the era of strategic competition with our near-peer competitors, Russia and China.
Trade Practices And Economic Dominance
What stood out in his national defense strategy was that when you compare the two, both Russia and China, China is going to be more of an enduring threat. Meaning, we are going to be engaged with competing against China in the next twenty, thirty, or forty years or beyond, especially when you look at the intent of China.
By 2040, they are more determined than ever to be the dominant force in the international system or international community. It goes a little bit beyond being dominant. The way they're going to be doing that is by using coercion. One way to do that is to undermine American power and other democratic states as a way to operate in the international system as an autocratic power.
What comes along with that is playing unfair when it comes to interaction with other states. A perfect example of that is the Belt and Road initiative, where China is engaged with many different developing countries around the world building infrastructure projects, but there are a lot of malpractices that come along with that. These countries are being ripped off with some of the projects that they're engaged with. They're building with cheap products and securing deals with them with high-interest loans.
When it comes to the United States, one of the primary concerns that we have as far as China during this era of strategic competition is trade, for example. When you look at the malpractices that they're engaged in with us, some of these trade deals that we have with them are coming up to be unfair. One is that we have a growing trade deficit. The other is that they're pulling more from us than we are from them.
When it comes to looking at the different domains in strategic competition ranging from soft security to hard, when you look at the soft security piece, especially economics, China is more engaged in that than the military intelligence community because they are seeking to have dominance in economic security as well as technology. This is one reason why we have to stay engaged by participating in the World Trade Organization, doing more bilateral negotiations with China, and looking at some of our trade deals where they have benefited more than us.
This concern flared up back in 2015 and 2016 when you saw that a lot of the American people were against the TPP or other multilateral or bilateral trade deals with China because they felt that the American worker was not benefiting and that they were losing out in terms of their engagement with other countries. In terms of trade practices, that's important. This is one reason why both the Biden administration and Trump administration continue the tariffs overall because of the fact that they saw these malpractices that China was engaging with us.
China's Role In Surveillance And Information Collection
Another important issue that you have to look at when it comes to strategic competition in China is the technology piece, too. China has sold surveillance systems to different countries, whether it was Israel or Ecuador, and has collected from these different types of people within those countries. It might've been Ecuador or Peru, but they stopped using their surveillance systems because they were collecting on them. It's the same type of thing.
That's why we saw the Chinese balloon or these mysterious drones. They're connected to the PRC where they're collecting from us. They're trying to collect our private information, our military installations, or nuclear sites that are located in the United States. One reason why they do that is because they want to learn more. They want to compete against us. In order to compete against your competitor, you have to constantly collect data on that person. This is why, for the United States, because we're an open society, it's easy for them to come in, collect from us, and use that information against us.
To compete against a competitor, you must constantly monitor them. Because the United States is an open society, it is easy for others to collect information on us and use it against us.
It's like with that balloon, which freaked everybody out. Do you think, because of your background, that that was a trial run for an EMP?
Yes. In terms of collecting data from us, absolutely. There are a lot of attempts that have happened where we have known overtly, like that balloon, that they're collecting from us, and then covertly, there are other mechanisms that they use to collect from us. It's easier for them to do that than for us to engage in them because they have more of a closed, controlled society.
It's more of an economic thing, though, than a military thing, is what you're saying, right?
Yes.
Russia is a military thing whereas you think China is more of an economic thing trying to control the economy.
For Russia, for the most part, it's more military and more short-term, too. I don't see the Russians engaging in a long vision of achieving dominance over the United States. I see it as more short-term and more engaging with the energy sector as well as the military but more military. When you look at the fentanyl crisis, that's another dynamic, too.
Fentanyl Crisis And China's Potential Involvement
The fentanyl crisis is growing in the United States, where the average American has been impacted, especially in places like Philadelphia and other parts of the United States. We're noticing the flow of these illicit drugs coming from the Mexican border is connected to the black market or groups in the PRC. How do we know this for a fact? That was one of the talking points between President Xi and President Biden when they met in San Francisco in 2024. What we learned over time is that China was tied into that problem and it was an interconnected network between the PRC Mexican cartel and other groups in the United States.
They deny the fact that they're pushing fentanyl in this country. Is that what you're saying?
President Xi is denying it, but that does not mean there's a disconnect. I'm pretty sure President Xi said to President Biden, "There are black groups within the black market in China that's probably more orchestrated with what's going on." We can't cancel out that there is a likelihood that they're fine with this crisis because when it comes to the use of drugs and impacting American people, that makes us less competitive in terms of quality assurance within the country. It's on paper that President Xi's saying, "We have nothing to do with that. That's probably black market-connected. That's not government-associated."
It's on everybody's minds with what's going on with the balloons and everything being made in China and how our economy is driven by it. When I looked at your experiences, how did you get involved in the foreign policymaking experience? How did that tie into your life?
I published a book called Why National Security Matters. In the book, I mentioned that when I was a junior in college, I studied abroad in Shanghai, China. This was 2005. The reason why I decided to study in China is because I wanted to learn more about international law and economics. During that time, I was determined to be a JAG lawyer in the military, so I wanted to learn more about international law.
I received a partial scholarship to study. I'm not going to lie to you. When I studied in Shanghai, China, I did not expect to find out the different dynamics that happened or what I observed or witnessed. There were a lot of different ones. One was learning about the global economy and how many US companies were co-located in Shanghai, which was interesting to watch, and also how quickly they were moving. You could see the intent of a post-Deng Xiaoping economic reform and how quickly they were moving in terms of development to be more part of the global economy and economic ambition.
Many of us don't know about Chinese culture or what they're doing because many of us do not study abroad in places like China. When it comes to applying strategic competition, it is more important than ever that we proliferate the number of Chinese experts in the United States, not only because it's important in terms of learning about the global economy but because it makes us more competitive overall. It does make me feel a bit disappointed that there are more of them learning about us than we learn about them.
It's important to learn about the global economy, as it makes us more competitive overall.
Family Discussions On Global Relations
That's a good idea. Part of the idea of this show is to help people have peace. The information you gave, we're going to have to unpack all of that in our action guide because it's a lot of content. It's great. You've paid your dues here. The thing about it is that in the audience that we have, the people who are tuning in to this, in a couple of minutes, what would you say to our audience about how to prepare and have peace about all this?
For once, be traditional about it. Sit at home at your kitchen table during dinner with your family and practice the level of strategic predictability. Discuss with your children, kids, or the next generation coming up, "What does the world look like when it comes to us? As a family, how are we going to adapt to the new world?" Think of ways or discuss with your children, "This is how we would have to deal with a rising China and the future." China is an even more important discussion point when it comes to entertainment where they have been able to buy up some of Hollywood. You have the governor of Iowa, who has a special relationship with President Xi. Having those discussions is very important.
You have to, as a family unit, think, "What could we do to safeguard ourselves from China as far as potential threats? What are ways we could cooperate with China, too?" I'm not purely saying they are our adversary. They are our competitor. In some ways, we have to work with China. In some ways, we have to compete against them. In some ways, there are things that China can do that come across as adversarial. These are the discussions that I'm asking the American people to have with their families. You can then expand out to your colleagues, friends, or next-door neighbors. Those discussions need to happen.
As a businessman, I get that. That's a cool concept because if I look at China as a competitor, not just an adversary, that's a whole different thought process for business people to think about how they should deal with that. Instead of seeing them as an enemy but a competitor, then it comes down to marketing and strategy. For the small businesses in America, it's hard to compete with China and what they're doing. It's a good thing that you're bringing to us.
I'd like to come back to you later on a different episode and talk more about how you see this works in things like what happened with this thing at the Treasury where they did some cyber stuff and your take on that. I know you're busy and running around crazy, but I'd like to thank you for your day. We appreciate you taking the time to spend this time with us and give us this heads-up on China. It's on everybody's mind. It's a very good topic. Have a good day.
You too. Thank you so much.