An expert has said that the Western world is “doomed” when it comes to China, whom he said “cannot be sanctioned” as it would have too drastic an effect on the world economy. William Je, ex Hong Kong member of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and Chief Executive Officer of Hamilton Investment Management Ltd, has said that sanctioning China would “disrupt the whole world”, unlike sanctioning Russia, which would predominantly stultify Europe.
It comes as US Navy divers are working to recover the wreckage of the Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
America’s former top military officer said he expected it would happen relatively quickly so that experts could begin analysing its equipment.
Fighter jets brought the craft down over US territorial waters on Saturday and debris is spread over a wide area.
The US believes the balloon was monitoring sensitive military sites.
Its discovery set off a diplomatic crisis, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken immediately calling off this weekend’s trip to China over the “irresponsible act”.
The Chinese authorities denied it was used for spying and insisted it was a weather ship blown astray.
Speaking to Express.co.uk, Mr Je said: “If something like this happens where sanctions are required, the effects are potentially disastrous.
“If they were sanctions against China – what would happen to the rest of the world? You can sanction Russia and you’ll get energy crises, but you aren’t disturbing the whole world. If you sanction China, the whole world would be doomed.”
He said that dialogue should never be stopped between China and the west, but world leaders should not neglect to scrutinize the CCP and call out its true intentions during heated diplomatic confrontations.
“The CCP operates so differently. This is very important, you have to understand where they are coming from. What they want to do is export their ideology, which is why they set up Confucian institutes all around the world, especially in the west – to spread the communist ideology – its the largest propaganda machine in the world.
“What is needed is for more world leaders to become more combative against China’s subtle yet aggressive power plays – you have to play their own game back.”
The former policy advisor and businessman also claims to have been targeted with a “dirty tricks” campaign of smears, cyber attacks and harassment orchestrated by China because of his support for democracy in Hong Kong.
Mr Je, who set up his own finance company in the UK after leaving Hong Kong, says it has suffered multiple state-backed cyber attacks including one that saw 40 million hits in the space of 30 seconds, the bulk coming from China.
He also established a charity to help Hong Kongers escape the Chinese authorities, and claims he and his staff have been targeted online with their names and photos circulated in posts on social media platforms accompanied by both personal and professional abuse.
“This is the way the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) works. Anyone who stands up for human rights and freedom, who is from Hong Kong or China, and does not follow the ideals of the CCP, are likely to be the subject to false allegations, bullying, harassment and persecution.
“Almost everyday I got phising messages and cyberattacks. The serious ones – my company experienced 40 million attacks within 30 minutes. My experts told me the attacks were state-sponsored and we traced the origins to China.
“My company experienced social media attacks and fake reports to regulators. We have fake reports to Canada and Bahama regulators. They put up a notice warning that Himalaya Exchange (Mr Je’s company) has issues.
“We cooperated and provided evidence and later on they, all of them, took down the notice. When they investigated they understood the notices were fake. We spent a lot of time and money and effort to deal with this.
“Who else in the world would organise and structure attacks on us other than the CCP?”
