“China has a strategy and they use the term ‘elite capture.’ The idea is that if they can influence the elite of a country — in government, in the media, and in culture — they can get them to have a softer view towards the CCP and China,” said Peter Schweizer on NTD News.
Schweizer, President of the Government Accountability Institute, joined Jack Bradley on The Capitol Report to explain the Chinese Communist Party’s strategy of elite capture. It is usually a subtle effort to sway Western political, media, and cultural elites through lavish trips and financial ties coordinated by United Front working groups within the Chinese government.
Schweizer is the author of Blood Money and Red Handed, both New York Times bestsellers about Chinese influence in — and on — US politicians, financial institutions, media, culture, technology, and academia.
“They don’t come up and say, ‘Come to China, the United Front wants to pay your ticket.’ It’s done in the name of cultural exchange,” Schweizer told Bradley. “It’s done in the in the name of face-to-face or people-to -people exchanges. But it’s dominated and controlled by the CCP,” he said. He added that the same strategy is used by the Chinese in Europe and other parts of the world.
Schweizer detailed how Beijing uses cultural fronts under its United Front Department to mask its influence operations, and warned that U.S. business and media elites often underestimate the CCP’s sophistication.
The discussion shifted to domestic unrest, where Schweizer explained GAI’s research, presented at the White House last month to President Trump, showing how large left-wing foundations and funding networks gave funding to groups behind violent protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity to deport illegal immigrants from major US cities. He believes the administration should consider the use of RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] statutes to hold organizers and financiers accountable for orchestrating criminal activity.
