China’s Other Front in the War Against the U.S.

For three decades, we’ve been under attack—and most Americans still don’t know it. While Washington argues over tariffs and spy balloons, China has been quietly waging biological sabotage, flooding our forests, waterways, and farms with invasive species that cripple industries, degrade ecosystems, and drain billions from our economy. What began as ecological nuisance has evolved into strategic sabotage. And we’re still treating it like a paperwork problem.

The emerald ash borer didn’t just kill trees—it incinerated budgets. Introduced from China, it has wiped out tens of millions of ash trees across 30 states (mine included). Cities like Denver have projected over $1 billion in removal, treatment, and lost canopy value, while nationwide costs for urban ash loss are estimated between $20 and $60 billion. Meanwhile, the spotted lanternfly—another Chinese import—has devastated vineyards, orchards, and hardwoods across the East Coast. Pennsylvania alone suffers over $550 million annually in agriculture and forestry losses. In New York, economic models show grape growers losing up to $8.8 million within just three years of infestation, threatening an industry already on edge from regulatory and climate pressures. In Georgia, nearly $3.5 billion in fruit and ornamental markets are now at risk.

These aren’t isolated pests. They’re deliberate pressure points. Chinese shore crabs have overrun our coastlines. Asian carp are devouring the foundation of our inland fisheries. Golden mussels, recently detected in California, are preparing to clog dams, irrigation channels, and hydropower intakes. They’re not just attacking the environment—they’re targeting infrastructure. Damage from aquatic invasive species now contributes to an estimated $120 billion per year in nationwide losses when including agriculture, water systems, forestry, and logistics.

And if there were any doubt about intent, federal prosecutors erased it this year. In Michigan, a Chinese national was caught at the airport smuggling Fusarium graminearum—a toxic fungus known to produce vomitoxin in cereal crops—hidden in a book. His colleague, embedded in a U.S. university lab, had already been working with it. The Department of Justice called the strain a potential agroterrorism weapon. According to prosecutors, the act posed a threat not only to commercial farming but to national security itself.

This isn’t paranoia. It’s pattern recognition. As China expert Gordon Chang warned, “The only way to stop this is to sever relations with China… maybe with something worse than COVID, maybe worse than fentanyl.” Former diplomat John R. Mills, writing for Newsweek, went even further: “The Chinese attempts this year to smuggle pathogens may be only the latest incidents in a Chinese campaign to bring down American agriculture. If this is not biological warfare, I don’t know what is.” And Ian Mitch, a researcher with the RAND Corporation, described how Chinese intelligence operations have expanded from digital theft to physical sabotage: “China’s spies in the United States may be developing the skills to physically sabotage critical infrastructure during a conflict,” he said, noting that biological sabotage would fall squarely within that playbook.

This is the new frontier of warfare: slow, deniable, biologically targeted. No need for bombs. Just introduce a pathogen that costs farmers $1 billion annually, contaminates livestock feed, and drives up grain prices. Send over another “researcher” with soil fungi and let the American system do the rest.

The soft underbelly of the United States isn’t our politics—it’s our biosecurity. China has exploited the openness of our labs, the gaps in our customs enforcement, and the blind spots in our regulatory bureaucracy. While Congress writes white papers and the EPA hosts stakeholder summits, China is already inside the gates—with a petri dish.

This is not an environmental issue. It is a national security failure. The economic burden is real and rising: commodity volatility, timber shortages, surging municipal costs, disrupted supply chains, and creeping losses across rural America. And we’re letting it happen. Why? Because we’re still unwilling to connect the dots.

Defending against this requires a paradigm shift. We need a doctrine that treats ecological infiltration the same way we’d treat cyberattacks or satellite jamming. It means shutting down unauthorized research access, inspecting biological cargo with the same rigor we apply to radiological threats, and building a biodefense strategy that includes pathogens, pests, and plants—not just pandemics. It also means understanding that every beetle, every fungus, every crab might be carrying a strategic purpose.

This is war without uniforms. And the longer we pretend it’s just bad luck, the more we lose—quietly, steadily, and by design.

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