Committee on the Present Danger: China

Committee on the Present Danger: China (CPDC) is an American foreign policy interest group with an anti-communist ideology focused on the existential and ideological threats posed to the United States and the West by Communist China. It is the fourth and present iteration of the hawkish Committee on the Present Danger and unveiled on March 25, 2019. The CPDC is focused on education and advocacy on the existential and ideological threat to the United States posed by Communist China.

Founding
The organization was announced with Frank Gaffney, a former White House official under President Ronald Reagan, playing a key role. Its stated aim is to "educate and inform American citizens and policymakers about the existential threats presented from the Peoples Republic of China under the misrule of the Chinese Communist Party". Between 2000 and 2023, there were 224 reported instances of Chinese espionage directed at the United States. The CPDC takes the view that there is "no hope of coexistence with China as long as the Communist Party governs the country".

In a statement on the launch of the committee, the Population Research Institute stated:"'The United States is in a new cold war. The Chinese Communist Party poses the greatest threat to both the United States and the world since the fall of the Soviet Union. Then, as now, the threat of a totalitarian regime with an evil ideology – one that is willing to kill 400 million of its own unborn children – must be stopped.'"

Members of the Committee on the Present Danger: China (CPDC)
The Committee on the Present Danger: China lists a variety of members including the former politicians and national security professionals, White House officials, business leaders, and others: • Brian Kennedy, Chairman

• Frank Gaffney, Vice chairman

• Greg Autry

• Steve Bannon

• J. Kyle Bass

• William Bennett

• William G. Boykin

• José Cardenas

• Robert Charles

• Henry Cooper

• Kenneth DeGraffenreid

• Paula DeSutter

• Nicholas Eftimiades

• Sam Faddis

• James Fanell

• Kevin Freeman

• Bob Fu

• Richard Fisher

• Mark Helprin

• Rosemary Gibson

• Sasha Gong

• Chadwick R. Gore

• Lianchao Han

• Peter Huessy

• Bradley Johnson

• Phillip Karber

• Steven L. Kwast

• Ratko Knezevic

• Xiaoxu Sean Lin

• Tidal McCoy

• Robert Maness

• Richard Manning

• Rod Martin

• Faith McDonnell

• Robert McEwen

• Thomas McInerney

• John Mills

• Steven W. Mosher

• Reggie Littlejohn

• Jay Lucas

• Scott Perry

• Benedict Peters

• Miles Prentice

• Suzanne Scholte

• Arthur Waldron

• Frank Wolf

• R. James Woolsey Jr.

• Yang Jianli

Criticisms
The CPDC has been criticized as promoting a revival of Red Scare politics in the United States, and for the involvement of Frank Gaffney and activist Steve Bannon. David Skidmore, writing for The Diplomat, described it as the latest instance of "what was once referred to as the 'military-industrial complex'" influencing policy. Charles W. Freeman Jr. at the Watson Institute called the CPDC "a Who's Who of contemporary wing-nuts, very few of whom have any expertise at all about China and most of whom represent ideological causes only peripherally connected to it."