The CCP has multiple objectives for the Greater Bay Area of China, which it officially launched in 2017. Beijing hopes the region will rival Silicon Valley in technological innovation, while aiding military-civil fusion (MCF) efforts. MCF refers to the CCP strategy for development of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into a “world class military” by 2049, and the sharing of technological innovations between China’s military and civilian sectors to achieve this goal. The CCP also uses the Greater Bay Area zone to integrate Hong Kong more deeply with mainland China, promoting a unified narrative and identity through cultural and economic exchanges, and to diminish Hong Kong’s unique identity. Furthermore, the CCP aims to link the Greater Bay Area of China with bay areas around the world, especially the San Francisco Bay Area, a global technology hub.
This paper charts the history of this outreach and explores the risks of such partnerships for U.S. cities and towns, including the suppression of dialogue on human rights and democracy. It also highlights the importance of state and local officials understanding that their engagements with officials from Hong Kong and mainland China are not mutually independent from Washington, D.C., and Beijing.
U.S. state and local officials have the freedom to pursue agendas and policies independent of the federal government, but Chinese officials on the local level do not. U.S. leaders must understand that when they meet with any Chinese government official or affiliated entity, they are engaging with Beijing and China’s centrally led grand strategy. In these subnational engagements, the U.S. state and local officials are dealing with an apparatus orchestrated and led by China’s central government and designed to benefit the CCP.
The CCP tries to proactively and preemptively shape the world in its interests, while neutralizing and isolating potential opposition. This entails pursuing avenues of potential partnership, such as collaboration on economic development and climate change, while suppressing discussion of topics the CCP views as a threat, such as the status of Taiwan, the suppression of civil liberties in Hong Kong, national security, democracy, and human rights.
