Inadvertently, the New York Times has pointed out what is not supposed to be pointed out in America: that both China and the United States have governmental structures that are based on a national-security state establishment.
After all, it’s important that Americans carry on with their myths — that the U.S. government is structured the way the Framers intended — the way the federal government has always been — that nothing fundamental has ever changed — and that Americans really are a free people living in a free society, unlike people who suffer under communist tyranny. “Praise the troops and thank God I’m an American, because at least I know I’m free.”
And then the New York Times inadvertently blows the myth out of the water, in an article dated April 20, 2016, entitled “China Sentences Man to Death for Espionage, Saying He Sold State Secrets.” In telling a story about a Chinese man, Huang Yu, 41, who has been convicted of disclosing national-security secrets, the Times, at the same time, disclosed the nature of the communist government as a national security state — that is, the same type of structure that was grafted onto America’s federal governmental system after World War II to fight the “Cold War” and that has remained an integral part — and actually has grown into the most powerful part — ever since.
Consider the following excerpts from the Times’ article:
Last week, China celebrated its first National Security Education Day, and security officials have established an anti-spying hotline…. Last year, the government approved a sweeping national security law, broadening the definition of what constituted a violation.
The publicity given to Mr. Huang’s case reflected [Chinese President Xi Jinping’s] determination to highlight the threats posed by foreign entities and the government’s tough approach to issues of national security, analysts said.
“The authorities are, in this way, advertising the fact that there is severe punishment available for crimes against national security,” said Eva Pils, a legal scholar at King’s College London. “I would read this as intending to produce a kind of warning effect.”
Cases of espionage have received wide attention in China recently. In January, officials announced that they were prosecuting a Canadian man who ran a cafe near the border with North Korea on charges of spying and stealing state secrets.
As part of National Security Education Day on Friday, Beijing officials hung posters at government offices warning about the risks of romantic relationships with foreigners, according to the Associated Press.
In a public confession, Huang expressed deep remorse for violating national security. He stated: “If there are other people who see me and they are doing similar things — betraying their country — I hope they’ll report themselves to the national security people. That’s good for their family and themselves, and it will lead to a better outcome.”
Does all this sound familiar? It should because as I point out in my newest ebook, The CIA, Terrorism, and The Cold War: The Evil of the National Security State, the term “national security” has become the most important term in the lexicon of the American people, a term that doesn’t even have any objective definition and isn’t even found in the Constitution. (See here and here for two very positive reviews of the book. And click here to purchase it for only $.99.) There is no doubt that national-security officials right here in the United States would agree with what their counterparts in China are doing to protect national security. Why, they would no doubt wholeheartedly endorse having a National Security Education Day here in the United States too, one that every public school in America would be expected to celebrate.
Think Edward Snowden, the American who cannot return to the United States without facing a criminal prosecution and, most likely, the death penalty, for disclosing the NSA’s super-secret national-security surveillance scheme to the American people. Think about all the federal whistleblowers who have been sent to jail for disclosing national-security secrets. Think about the telecom scandal in which U.S. telecoms conspired with national-security officials to break the law and violate their customers’ privacy. Think of the torture and assassination of American citizens and others. Think of the CIA kidnapping in Italy, the subsequent felony convictions of CIA agents, and the refusal of CIA agents to return to Italy to face justice. Think of all the national-security regime-change operations in foreign countries. Think of the U.S. partnerships with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and other tyrannical regimes.
It’s all done under the rubric of “national security,” and no one, including federal judges, does anything about it. Under a national-security state, whether it be in communist China or the United States, “national security” is everything. It trumps freedom, prosperity, morality, and law.
Meanwhile, Americans continue to believe that this Cold War-era, totalitarian, communist type of governmental structure is necessary to “keep them safe” and, even worse, protect their “rights and freedoms.” Americans of our time epitomize the words of Johann Goethe: “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”
The CIA, Terrorism, and The Cold War: The Evil of the National Security State: $.99 at Amazon.