Renegade Chinese Billionaire Waging Battle That Touches Pair of Think Tanks

Here is more from Politico:

A billionaire at the center of U.S.-China tensions is waging a mysterious legal battle against two D.C. conservatives over a private espionage deal gone bad. The fight touches on a pair of think tanks, a senator’s widow and the capital’s tight-knit group of China hardliners, adding a new chapter to an international saga that has divided the Trump administration and the president’s external allies.

It began when a firm tied to the billionaire, real estate magnate Guo Wengui [who goes by Miles Kwok in the US], allegedly hired a private intelligence firm to dig up dirt on Chinese nationals — including their bank records, porn habits and any illegitimate children — then sued, saying the firm failed to deliver.

In early 2018, the Guo-linked firm hired Strategic Vision, an obscure company led by Washington-area executive French Wallop, to dig up information on several targets, whom the suit does not name.

In addition to Wallop, J. Michael Waller acted as a representative of Strategic Vision, according to a letter the firm submitted to the court. Waller is a vice president at the far-right Center for Security Policy, a think tank founded by Frank Gaffney, a national security activist known for his conspiratorial hostility to Islam. 

Guo was introduced to Strategic Vision by Lianchao Han, a dissident activist and visiting fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute.

As Think Tank Watch previously reported, President Donald Trump's former strategist Stephen Bannon met Guo Wengui after a Hudson Institute event was cancelled last year.

US Think Tank Scholars Blocked From Entering China

Almost everyone has heard of the ongoing US-China trade war but few have noticed a much quieter war taking place: a US-China think tank war.  Here is the latest from the New York Times:

An American scholar who has advised President Trump on China said late Wednesday that he was not given a visa he sought to attend a recent conference in Beijing, in what he called apparent retaliation for American restrictions on visas for visiting Chinese scholars.

The scholar, Michael Pillsbury, director for Chinese strategy at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, said he applied for a visa with the Chinese Embassy in Washington on March 22 but failed to get approval to attend the conference last Sunday, which was organized by a research institute in Beijing.

The host of the conference in Beijing was the Center for China and Globalization. Mr. Pillsbury, citing Chinese associates, said that the conference had also invited Wendy Cutler, a former United States trade official, but that she had also failed to get a visa. Ms. Cutler could not be reached for comment late Wednesday night.

Mr. Pillsbury said that when he raised the issue with a Chinese Communist Party official he knows, the official pointed to a recent New York Times article that said counterintelligence officials at the F.B.I. had been canceling the long-term visas of some Chinese scholars.

Mr. Pillsbury said he took that to imply that his visa application had been stymied in reprisal for the new restrictions.

The New York Times recently reported that the FBI has barred around 30 Chinese scholars from entering the US.

Here is a link to other people, including scholars from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Asia Foundation, Heritage Foundation, and Cato Institute, who were supposed to attend the event in China.

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch piece about Michael Pillsbury, President Trump's "go-to" China scholar.

Calls are now being made for a ceasefire in the "visa war."

Meet Trump's Go-To China Scholar

Here is more from Politico:

A day before President Donald Trump departed for the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, several top officials gathered in the Oval Office to strategize about Trump’s highly anticipated meeting there with China’s president.

Seated around Trump’s Resolute Desk were Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. On couches a few feet away were White House chief of staff John Kelly, Trump’s son in law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, Pence’s chief of staff, Nick Ayers, and Matt Pottinger, the National Security Council’s top Asia hand. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro joined by speakerphone.

Before the discussion ended, Pence stepped out to fetch an outsider for a final briefing about Trump’s Saturday dinner with Chinese president Xi Xinping, which could determine whether the U.S. and China plunge deeper into a potentially disastrous trade war.

That outsider was Michael Pillsbury, a starchy academic at Washington’s conservative Hudson Institute enjoying a remarkable, and unlikely, influence. He has caught the ear of Trump, who during a November press conference proclaimed him “probably the leading authority on China.”

The former Reagan and George H.W. Bush Pentagon official has spent decades in the cold, dismissed by critics as a mix of conspiratorial and self-promoting. But now, current and former Trump officials say he is among the most important voices shaping a confrontational U.S. turn towards China which some analysts fear could trigger a new global cold war.

In addition to occasionally conferring with Pillsbury directly, Trump also catches and approves of his frequent television appearances, in which the China hand often lavishes praise on the president.

Pillsbury — a fluent Mandarin speaker who makes regular visits to China — has sometimes acted as a middle man between the White House and China’s government.

In October, the Wall Street Journal reported that he had discussed Trump’s trade policies — which have recently included mounting tariffs on Chinese goods — with Wang Huiyao, the head of a Beijing think tank with ties to China’s communist leadership. During a September visit to Hudson, Wang publicly unveiled proposals to tamp down the trade fight, which Pillsbury relayed to the Trump White House.

A persistent misconception is that his wealth — reflected in his posh Georgetown home — comes from the Pillsbury flour fortune of “doughboy” fame. 

The New York Times also wrote a piece about Pillsbury which adds some interesting tidbits, including the fact that he plays tennis with Peter Navarro and his house in Georgetown is worth $7.5 million.

A 2005 Wall Street Journal article says that he is a member of the Pillsbury flour family.  It also says that in the 1980s, he lost and regained his security clearance amid allegations of leaking secret information to the press.

When he was 27 years old, Pillsbury joined the RAND Corporation as a China scholar.  At that think tank, he did classified work for the US government.

A few weeks ago, Vice President Mike Pence gave an aggressive at the Hudson Institute that caused Beijing to lash out at the Trump Administration.

Here is a recent Think Tank Watch piece about how the Hudson Institute has become a major anti-China platform.

Hudson Institute Becomes Major Anti-China Platform

The Hudson Institute has become the leading platform in the Trump Administration to launch attacks against the Chinese government, gaining influence and attention along the way.

The conservative think tank has just announced that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) will deliver a keynote speech at Hudson examining China's influence on international media, university campuses, think tanks, and the Chinese diaspora.

Rubio will be speaking on Oct. 24 at Hudson.  Here is more:

The Hudson Institute and Freedom House’s Mark Palmer Forum for the Advancement of Democracy invite you to a conference on China’s global challenge to democratic freedom. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) will deliver an introductory keynote speech, followed by three panel discussions bringing together experts and activists to share cutting edge research, analyze recent trends, and consider potential responses.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under General Secretary Xi Jinping has put enormous financial and political resources into expanding its influence abroad. Xi has elevated the importance of United Front activities, which rely on co-opting the Chinese diaspora and building relationships with Western enablers.

In democracies, CCP influence operations target politicians, business people, academia, the media, and the Chinese diaspora. CCP and Chinese government funding has also intruded into the realm of ideas, influencing think tanks, academia, newspapers, and other media outlets. The CCP, by changing how democracies speak and think about China, is attempting to make “the world safe” for its ongoing efforts to deepen its authoritarianism at home and extend its influence internationally.

The Mark Palmer Forum for the Advancement of Democracy honors the legacy of Ambassador Mark Palmer, long-time Freedom House trustee and vice chairman. The Palmer Forum includes an annual conference with leading policymakers and experts, and programs by human rights defenders and leading digital activists, exploring ways to improve global prospects for strengthening human rights and democracy.

Last week, Vice President Mike Pence used Hudson for an aggressive China policy speech that caused Beijing to lash out against the Trump Administration.

Update: Here is an opinion piece from Hudson's Seth Cropsey entitled "How to Win a Cold War With Beijing."