State Armor Announces Launch

New Non-profit Working to Protect States from Global Security Threats

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, State Armor, a non-profit organization committed to educating the American public and lawmakers about state policy solutions to global threats, announced its launch.

"States are now on the front lines against foreign adversaries. In fact, for years states have been targeted by well-resourced, technologically sophisticated foreign adversaries, particularly communist China," said Michael Lucci, Founder and CEO of State Armor. "The Chinese Communist Party is engaged in a broad effort to supplant the United States so it can rewrite global norms according to its authoritarian model. To achieve its goals, the CCP aggressively pursues a strategy to gain economic leverage over state and local governments, to make states dependent on their technologies, and to suppress the First Amendment-protected speech of Chinese dissidents within America." 

To counter the CCP's strategy, State Armor will transform America's decentralized system of federalism into a tremendous national security asset. State Armor dedicates its energy to exposing malign CCP influence operations and educating lawmakers and the public about threats to our supply chains, vulnerabilities caused by Chinese technologies, the pitfalls of enabling the Communist Party's gross human rights violations in China, and the CCP's violation of civil liberties in America.

"State Armor is going to bring awareness and ready-for-action plans to push counter-China policies that many of our state leaders know need to get done, but just aren't sure where to start," said former U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien. "It's no secret the Chinese Communist Party poses a major threat to the American way of life, but until now there hasn't been a group solely focused on taking on Communist China at the state level. This issue is not partisan. States want to take action; State Armor will be there to show them how."

State Armor intends to mobilize a network of stakeholders, from concerned citizens to experts, to aid states in developing and implementing comprehensive, common sense, and bipartisan solutions to protect themselves from what is widely regarded as a generation-defining foreign threat.

"Beijing's strategy to weaken the U.S. runs through the states, as evidenced by Xi Jinping's impromptu drop-in to Anchorage to work a trade deal with Alaska after Mar-a-Lago in 2017, and more recently the Communist Party's very effective program to drive a wedge between the President and the California Governor, both members of the same party," said Dave Stilwell, former Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. "Instead of the entree into the U.S. economy, Beijing has created fifty additional access points. An initiative like State Armor is long overdue – a very necessary strategy to prevail in the New Cold War."

State Armor believes state solutions will not only provide near-term safeguards but help make it easier for federal policymakers to adopt national protections.

"From CCP-affiliated purchases of agricultural land to efforts by the party to influence state and local politics, states are on the front lines of our New Cold War with the Chinese Communist Party," said Chairman Mike Gallagher, Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. "We may call this a 'strategic competition,' but this is not a polite tennis match. The most fundamental human rights and freedoms are at stake. I commend State Armor for acting with a sense of urgency to expose the CCP's nefarious networks across our states and equip local lawmakers with the tools to fight this New Cold War."

To learn more about State Armor visit their website at StateArmor.org or visit State Armor on "X" @StateArmor.

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SOURCE State Armor