General Robert Spalding has served in senior positions of strategy and diplomacy within the Defense and State Departments for more than 26 years, retiring as a brigadier general. An expert on U.S.–China competition, fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Spalding currently serves as a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
His new book, “Stealth War: How China Took Over While America’s Elite Slept,” details China’s successful infiltration of American institutions.
At the 2022 National Conservatism Conference, he spoke with NTD about data, AI, and the new age of war.
“We have a problem in Washington, D.C., whoever’s in charge: … our corporations and financial institutions are influencing the political process every day. They go to the White House every day, they go to the Congress. I saw this when I was in the White House. Unless we stop that, it doesn’t matter who’s in charge, because ultimately, we may say great things, but when it comes right down to ensuring the policies match the rhetoric, we are completely undercut by our own U.S. corporations and financial institutions.”