Countering China’s Great Game: A Strategy Conversation with Michael Sobolik

As a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute specializing in United States–China relations, Michael Sobolik unpacks one of America’s most formidable 21st-century adversaries — not China itself, but the Chinese Communist Party.

“We've found that engaging China economically has not changed them politically or made them freer politically. It's just made this Marxist-Leninist regime stronger and now they're coming after us.” — Michael Sobolik

Michael has spent over a decade focused on U.S.–China relations, focusing on geopolitics, net assessments, and competitive strategies. When it comes to the threat of the Chinese Communist Party, he pulls no punches.

“It is not just that the CCP has these insidious inroads into the United States, but we gave them the keys. We left the door wide open, in industry after industry, because it was profitable in the short term to do so."

With a career spanning Capitol Hill, the think tank world, and the publication of his book Countering China’s Great Game: A Strategy for American Dominance, Michael is focused on warning the public about a truth many still don’t want to confront.

“The CCP behaves as a Leninist political organization,” he explains. “Marxist-Leninism is basically in a state of perpetual revolution. The idea of a regime being so unstable that it needs to continue to grow and grow to remain stable is something that I think a lot of Americans don't really understand intuitively."

According to Sobolik, this drive for expansion is baked into their identity. “They want to dominate the world. They want political dominance,” he says. “The Chinese Communist Party wants that and they want to take it away from America."

The conversation also explores China's efforts on U.S. soil, from espionage to cyber sabotage. Michael shares a recent discovery about “Confucius Institutes” — educational and cultural organizations funded by the Chinese government, designed to promote Chinese language and culture worldwide. 

“They were outposts for CCP espionage in the United States,” he offers. “Confucius Institutes are usually the opening act to establish further research cooperation…that bleeds into the military domain.”

Even more chilling is China’s cyber strategy: “The CCP is doing cyber infiltration inside America today. They're pre-positioning capabilities for sabotage in a moment of crisis." And the kicker? According to Sobolik, “American companies are complicit in giving China that technological know-how to do this in the first place.”

He sounds the alarm on TikTok, as an example of the power of infiltration: “The political agenda of TikTok is scaled indoctrination,” he says. “More time on TikTok is correlated with a more positive impression of China’s human rights record."

Sobolik urges listeners to look past the entertainment and consider the consequences: “Pull out a picture of China on a map,” he explains. “In every single direction, you'll find some sort of gross human rights violation or atrocity."

This includes the Uyghur genocide, the crackdown on Hong Kong, and aggressive territorial claims: “They're literally redrawing the map and building fake islands to muscle out smaller nations.”

And then there's Taiwan. “They care about Taiwan because they view it as unfinished business,” Michael believes. “Xi Jinping wants to claim Taiwan, and China’s military is beefing up for that exact purpose.” 

While the goal may not be a full-blown invasion, Sobolik offers it’s part of their strategy. “They're setting the conditions to win without needing to invade in the first place,” he explains. “But just because Beijing isn't pulling a trigger, doesn't mean we shouldn't respond, and this is one of the biggest mistakes that successive administrations in Washington have made.”

“China has been doing gray zone activity where they don't cross that red line of triggering outright war."

Sobolik closes with a clear warning. “The CCP only understands power as the only legitimizing factor in politics. They require total control,” he says. “We have got to start responding to these guys, and we need to start doing it more creatively.”

Listen to the full episode with Michael Sobolick for a stark, honest breakdown of the Chinese Communist Party’s ideology, infiltration, and intentions.

You can follow Samuel Waitt for additional insights on world politics by subscribing to his Substack: samuelwaitt.substack.com and read the book: Waitt, What?: Reflections on Global Politics – available on Amazon.