Seven things you can say about Tom Cotton

Today is the official publication date of Seven Things You Can’t Say About China, by Senator Tom Cotton. Senator Cotton is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He became its chairman in the new Congress. As I like to say of authorities when the assertion applies: he knows what he is talking about. John Hinderaker previewed the book here last week. I want to add these seven things you can say about Tom Cotton and his new book.

• This is Senator Cotton’s third book. It follows Sacred Duty (published by HarperCollins) and Only the Strong (published by Hachette).

• Victor Davis Hanson reviewed the first of Cotton’s books for the Claremont Review of Books. I wrote about it here in a personal vein on Power Line. Colin Dueck reviewed the second, also for the Claremont Review of Books.

• Sean Desmond — an editor at HarperCollins — proposed that Senator Cotton write this book. In the book’s acknowledgments Cotton credits his encouragement “to synthesize and elaborate what I’d said and written about the Chinese Communist Party for several years.” Some of those things appear in Cotton’s second book, on American foreign policy. HarperCollins also published Sacred Duty. The publisher wanted him back and they knew what it was doing when it proposed this book to him.

• The central chapter of Seven Things is “China Has Infiltrated Our Society.” It begins with Hollywood, “where China has muzzled America’s most popular art form and brought actors, directors, and studio executives to heel. As a result, Hollywood hasn’t released a movie featuring China as the villain in more than a generation.” Cotton proceeds to identify other areas of American life infiltrated by the CCP: professional sports, the news media, higher education, corporate America, and Wall Street.

• Even the source notes in the book are worth reading. In his notes on sources for chapter 4, for example, he writes: “This chapter draws heavily on open-source information, yet the dots aren’t often connected. For example, you would probably realize, if you reflected on it, that Hollywood hasn’t produced a movie with a Chinese villain since the late 1990s. And it’s no secret that all major news networks (except Fox) are owned or affiliated with a Hollywood studio. Same thing with the NBA’s deep ties to China. Now that you know the backstory and implications, you can connect the dots when these stories appear in the news.”

• The source notes for chapter 1 — “China Is An Evil Empire” — are particularly valuable. Among the books he cites that I have read and recommend along with Seven Things is Kai Strittmatter’s We Have Been Harmonized: Life In China’s Surveillance State.

• Quotable quote from Seven Things: “As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I’m often asked if the threat from China is as bad as it seems. My answer is no — it’s worse than you can imagine.”