A Strategic Response to China’s Reverse Opium War
Final article in the six-part series on the CCP's Reverse Opium War
The U.S. and other Western nations must adopt a strategic and forward-looking approach in dealing with China on the issue of the Reverse Opium War—an expansive campaign of nonlinear political warfare orchestrated by a faction of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over the past three decades.
There are two critical reasons to engage China now:
1. A Leadership Transition Is Underway
China is in a period of political transition. Potential successors to Xi Jinping largely come from the reformist camp, and many were not involved in the Ye-Xi clique—the core group behind the Reverse Opium War. These new leaders may be more willing to confront and rectify the wrongdoing of Xi and his allies. That creates a window of opportunity for the West to support a paradigm shift within China, one that could dismantle the web of drug trafficking and money laundering operations with significantly less resistance and fewer resources required on our part.
2. The Scope of CCP Political Warfare Has Grown
What began as a narcotics and laundering strategy has expanded into a broad campaign of nonlinear warfare targeting nearly every sector of Western society. Any future negotiation with China’s next generation of leadership must address this full spectrum of activity, not just the drug trade.
Areas of concern include:
Business: Since the early 1990s, the CCP has leveraged influence, organized crime networks, and deceptive joint ventures to infiltrate and sabotage Western companies from within. Other forms of industrial espionage and corporation capture are also ongoing.
Entertainment: Hollywood studios and media companies have been lured by access to China’s market, only to face coercive censorship in return for distribution rights. The self-censorship that has come from this is killing the US entertainment industry (ok, that’s strictly my opinion).
Sports: After an NBA executive tweeted support for Hong Kong, China suspended broadcasts of NBA games—demonstrating how the CCP uses economic leverage to control global messaging. Despite the 2-year absence of NBA games inside China, American professional basketball ranks #1 in China among all pro sports.
Higher Education: U.S. universities have faced infiltration and influence from CCP-linked entities, including through financial gifts, talent recruitment schemes, and front groups posing as cultural exchanges. The CCP instituted guidelines for companies in China to avoid hiring Chinese graduates from US colleges.
Government and NGOs: Local governments, think tanks, and nonprofits have been targets of long-term CCP influence operations aimed at reshaping policy and public opinion in favor of Beijing.
One revealing case: Chinese organized crime figures posing as investors partnered with Donald Trump on the New York Railyard project—only to sabotage the deal from within. This calculated act cost Trump significant profits and underscored the precision with which CCP-linked actors conduct business-related political warfare.
Seeking Damages and Accountability
To address these assaults, Western nations must go beyond sanctions and defense strategies. Justice and restitution are essential.
While Xi Jinping and the Ye brothers were central to the Ye-Xi clique, they were supported by other elites within the CCP. A panel—composed of Chinese dissidents, independent jurists, and international experts—should be convened to investigate and identify all officials who helped design or benefited from these political warfare operations. These individuals, or their heirs, must be compelled to relinquish assets tied to such activities. Funds should be redirected to victims of the opioid epidemic, economic subversion, and intellectual property theft.
The same standard should apply to Chinese organized crime figures who played operational roles. Their assets should be seized, their financial networks dismantled, and their global influence eliminated.
Moreover, all United Front organizations operating in democratic societies must be disbanded. These groups, often disguised as cultural or business associations, function as tools of CCP soft power and subversion. Their leadership must face the same vetting and accountability process as CCP officials and organized crime figures.
This is not a call to punish the Chinese people. It is a call to uphold international law, protect democratic institutions, and deter future acts of covert aggression. True accountability offers the clearest path toward a future of honest engagement and mutual respect between China and the West.
A Final Word: Look Beyond the Surface
The West must avoid narrowing its focus solely to China’s role in America’s drug crisis. It is critical to dismantle China’s Reverse Opium War, but a drug distribution network and widespread criminal systems attached to it will persist. Other suppliers and substances will quickly rise to fill the vacuum. Eliminating the CCP threat is only 60% of the problem – but it will be satisfying to see the network of Chinese operatives brought to justice and that should provide motivation to complete the job.