“This committee is about saber rattling, it’s not about peace. We need cooperation, not competition” the second, male demonstrator cried, flipping his sign to read correctly.

McMaster tied the protesters to the operations of the United Front Work Department (UFWD) and its goal of convincing U.S. leaders and the West that the U.S. is responsible for the world’s problems.

“I think these eruptions are indicative of the effect that the United Front Work Department has had. They have reinforced to some degree what you might call a curriculum of self-loathing that has taken hold in academia,” he said.

That agenda reinforces the idea that “if only America disengages or in this case becomes more passive, then things will get better.”

In contrast, he argued that the complacency represented in the demonstrators’ outbursts were a stark reminder of the indifferent attitude the U.S. has shown toward China’s rising predatory economic and military power in recent decades.

The UFWD, a component of China’s state security, is at the forefront of China’s economic espionage, McMaster explained.

It employs “dual hatted officials working in more than one role” to conduct influence and espionage operations globally, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.