Opinion
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April 4, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — A U.S. national security panel, The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is forcing Kunlun, a Chinese business based in the Capital of Beijing, to divest its ownership of homosexual hookup site Grindr. The U.S. panel is stating that Chinese ownership of Grindr is a national security risk involving blackmail.

Chinese “private” companies, including the churches, are controlled by the Communist Party.

The risk of the Chinese government controlling Grindr is shown in the example of the Chinese Communist Party targeting an American on Grindr and placing a Chinese spy on that American’s Grindr account, with the American not being aware that his “random” Grindr date is planting listening devices as well as preparing a campaign of blackmail.

Grindr describes itself as the world’s largest social networking app for homosexuals, bisexuals, transgenders, and queer people and had 27 million users in 2017. Grindr collects personal information submitted by its users, including personal messages and a person’s location and HIV status, all of which could be used by Chinese intelligence.

The communist Chinese are aggressive both in spying and in obtaining information. One method is called the “honey pot,” in which a Chinese agent has sex with the target and later blackmails him. French intelligence cited a case in which a young Chinese woman had sexual relations with a top French researcher at a major pharmaceutical company, the man being unaware that she was a Chinese communist spy and that the sex had been videotaped. The French intelligence officer said, “When he was shown the recorded film of the previous night in his hotel room … [h]e proved highly cooperative.”

If one is staying in China, there is a known risk that his hotel room is being bugged. The U.S. State Department, in 2008, shortly before the Summer Olympics in Beijing, issued this warning: “All visitors should be aware that they have no reasonable expectation of privacy in public or private locations. All hotel rooms and offices are subject to on-site or remote technical monitoring at all times. Hotel rooms, residences, and offices may be accessed at any time without the occupant’s consent or knowledge.”

In 2015, President Barack Obama broke a decades-long tradition of staying at the famous Waldorf Astoria during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The Waldorf Astoria had just been acquired by the Chinese. U.S. officials anonymously said security, specifically espionage concerns, was the reason for breaking the tradition.

Over the span of 20 years, former cardinal Theodore McCarrick traveled to China on at least eight occasions, sometimes staying in a state-controlled Beijing seminary. McCarrick was the unofficial bridge between the Vatican and the communist Chinese government.

Prior to being laicized due to pressure from outside public reports of sexual abuse of seminarians and children, former cardinal McCarrick had been a leader in the deal between Chinese president Xi Jinping and the Church under Pope Francis, according to Chinese reports as well as American reports.

McCarrick said in 2016, “I see a lot of things happening that would really open many doors because President Xi and his government are concerned about things that Pope Francis is concerned about.” McCarrick also said the similarities between Pope Francis and Xi Jinping could be “a special gift for the world.”

A communist state-approved Chinese newspaper also reported that McCarrick traveled to China in February 2016 — “a trip in which the cardinal said he would visit some ‘old friends.’” This was not the first time the communist Chinese media reported on McCarrick. In 1998, the Chinese news reported that then-archbishop McCarrick had paid a visit to the National Seminary in Beijing.

McCarrick was hosted by the Beijing seminary during at least two trips to China, according to a 2006 State Department document.

The vice rector of a communist-approved seminary, Fr. Shu-Jie Chen, described twice hosting McCarrick in an account found in a cable from Christopher Sandrolini, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See. Chen described himself as “king” of the seminary, saying he “could do what he wanted within its walls.” Sandrolini also reported that Fr. Chen “downplayed persecution of the underground Church,” calling its members “uneducated” and “elderly.” He said Chen seemed “unconcerned” that “evangelization was not an option” for official religious personnel.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò recounted a meeting with McCarrick in June 2013, during which Viganò claims he was told by McCarrick, “The pope received me yesterday, tomorrow I am going to China.”

A 2007 article in The Atlantic described the close friendship between McCarrick and the communist “Church” and how McCarrick claimed to have relayed messages from the Chinese government-appointed bishop to the pope in the 1990s.

The Chinese communists have a track record that demonstrates they would have pressured through blackmail a compromised McCarrick, with his history of sexually abusing seminarians, into revealing secrets McCarrick knew about the Vatican and his fellow cardinals, bishops and priests. The communist Chinese government would have an interest in using this information for further blackmail purposes on the Vatican.

The Chinese government has increased its persecution of all Christian churches in the last months. The communist government is destroying crosses, burning Bibles, closing churches, and forcing Christians to sign papers renouncing their faith.

In 2018, the Vatican signed an agreement with the Chinese communist Party where the communist-controlled and chosen bishops would be accepted by the Vatican and in full communion with Rome. Cardinal Joseph Zen, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, said the agreement is “tragic and long lasting, not only for the Church in China but for the whole Church because it damages the credibility.” The Vatican, he said, is giving “the flock into the mouths of the wolves. It’s an incredible betrayal.”