How the CCP and Its Proxies Created a ‘World on Fire’: Col. John Mills

American Thought Leaders

The Epoch Times

Government, News, Politics

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 July 2025

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“China is surpassing American strength, whether it be naval forces or nuclear forces,” says retired U.S. Army Col. John Mills.

His four-decade career has spanned key roles from the Cold War era to the War on Terror. At the Department of Defense, he directed cybersecurity policy.

“I was brought into cyber in 2007 when the threat really was Russian cyber adventurism, but by 2012, from that point onward, it was all China—wasn’t even close,” he says. “For every dollar Russia spent on misadventure, China spent 20.”

In this episode, we dive into the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) influence globally and how it has created what Mills calls a “world on fire.”

“All the playing pieces are kind of in place for [CCP leader Xi Jinping] to make his move around the world, to establish China as the dominant nation state, and everything else, all other nations, would be tributary vassal states, including the U.S.,” Mills says.

“They are absolutely advancing a relentless onslaught of information warfare, through their media, through their wolf warriors, to advance a Chinese communist message that just drowns out everything else.”

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Transcript

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0:00.0	China is surpassing American strength, whether it be naval forces or nuclear forces.
0:06.0	John Mills is a retired U.S. Army colonel.
0:09.0	His four-decade career has spanned key roles from the Cold War era to the War on Terror.
0:14.0	At the Department of Defense, he directed cybersecurity policy.
0:18.0	I was brought into cyber in 2007 when the threat really was Russian cyber adventurism.
0:25.6	But by 2012, it was all China. It wasn't even close.
0:29.6	For every dollar Russia spent on misadventure, China spent 20.
0:35.6	In this episode, we dive into Chinese Communist Party influence globally
0:39.3	and how this has created what Mills calls a world on fire.
0:43.3	All the pieces are kind of in place for Xi to make his move around the world
0:49.3	to establish China as the dominant nation state
0:53.3	and all other nations would be tributary vassal states, including the U.S.
1:00.2	This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Yanya Kellick.
1:05.2	Colonel John Mills, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders.
1:09.1	Jan, thank you. It's such an honor to be on your show with you.
1:12.4	So you've said that all or most regional conflicts in the world actually trace back to
1:19.8	communist China. So justify that for me because that's a big statement.
1:24.9	Well, right now, we live in a world on fire. We have multiple regional
1:31.3	conflicts going on when you start to break them down. Every one of them traces to China,
1:37.8	whether it's the American Home Front and fentanyl, Antifa violence in the streets.
1:45.0	It's all that traces to China, whether it's Ukraine, the Middle East, the Americas, whether it's Asia.
1:53.0	Now, I also like to use the allegory here that in 1939 in the summer, if you asked a group of experts, was the world in conflict,
	...

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