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Outside In | National security obsession blinding US to its biggest threats at home
- Paranoia over grave and imminent dangers all around is distracting America from the serious risks of domestic terrorism and political violence
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National security is a serious matter. No one in Hong Kong needs to be reminded of that, given the brouhaha that complicated our decades-long efforts to pass Article 23, and the controversial passage of our national security law.
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But there is contagion afoot, in the United States in particular, that has bled the concept of national security into virtually everything. As Tufts University’s Daniel Drezner wrote recently in Foreign Affairs: “From climate change to ransomware to personal protective equipment to critical minerals to artificial intelligence (AI), everything is national security now.”
The list of such threats in the 2022 US national security strategy report included energy, nuclear power, terrorism (domestic, international and cyber), drugs, AI, international criminal organisations, critical minerals, food security (from cultivation to consumption), supply chains, the Mexican border and immigration.
You can add Chinese port cranes, which might illicitly monitor port activity, biotechnology and all electric vehicles, which US President Joe Biden has described as “smartphones on wheels”.
For me, the tipping point was when Grindr, the China-owned gay dating app, was accused of being a national security threat. US officials said it had the potential to compromise or blackmail gays in government or the US military.
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I am not saying this would not have been technically possible, but common sense tells me that if Chinese spooks wanted to track down gays in the military, they have easier ways, like signing up to any one of dozens of other non-Chinese-owned dating sites.
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