Senator Tom Cotton and “Seven Things You Can’t Say About China”
Sen. Cotton believes that China can be defeated without firing a shot if we as a nation play our cards right.
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) is one of the most fearlessly vocal members of the United States Senate warning about the dangers posed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). His warnings about China are manifested in his #1 New York Times bestselling book Seven Things You Can’t Say About China.
Accordingly, on April 2, 2025, Cotton took part in a book signing event at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation’s (VOC) Museum in Washington, DC, officially titled “A Conversation with Senator Tom Cotton.“ The event was co-sponsored by Hillsdale College.
Sen. Cotton Mini-Bio and Book Description
Thomas Bryant Cotton was born on May 13, 1977, in Dardanelle, Arkansas to Thomas Leonard “Len” Cotton—a district supervisor in the Arkansas Department of Health—and Avis (née Bryant) Cotton, a schoolteacher who later became principal of their district’s middle school.
After earning his commission in 2005 via U.S. Army Officer Candidate School, Cotton served in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and in Afghanistan with a Provincial Reconstruction Team, eventually attaining the rank of captain (pay grade O-3). Between combat tours, he served with the 3rd Infantry Regiment (“the Old Guard”) at Arlington National Cemetery. His military awards and decorations include the Bronze Star, Combat Infantryman Badge, and the Ranger Tab.
Cotton served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives before his 2014 election to the Senate. On January 3, 2025, he assumed the position of chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Cotton is also the bestselling author of Sacred Duty and “Only the Strong. An alumnus of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he married Virginia attorney Anna Peckham in March 2014, and they have two sons, Gabriel and Daniel.
For the sake of brevity, the “seven things” referred to in the book’s title also served as the titles of the book’s individual chapters. To wit:
- China Is an Evil Empire
- China Is Preparing for War
- China Is Waging an Economic World War
- China Has Infiltrated Our Society
- China Has Infiltrated Our Government
- China Is Coming for Your Kids
- China Can Win
VOC Brief History and Mission
Authorized in 1993 by a unanimous Act of Congress signed as Public Law 103-199 by President William J. Clinton on December 17, 1993, and officially co-founded by the late great Lee Willis Edwards, VOC is an educational, research, and human rights nonprofit organization devoted to commemorating the more than 100 million human beings murdered by communism around the world and to pursuing the liberation of those still living under totalitarian regimes.
Event Q&A Session
Following introductory remarks by VOC president and CEO Eric Patterson and Matthew Spalding, Cotton sat down for a Q&A session with VOC chairman Elizabeth Edwards Spalding (wife of Matthew Spalding and daughter of the aforementioned Edwards), The first question she asked of Sen. Cotton was what motivated him to write Seven Things You Can’t Say About China. He responded thusly:
“I apologize, we gotta cut this a little bit short, so you don’t get to hear my normal long-winded Senatorial remarks [audience laughter] … I can’t think of a better place to have this conversation than this Victims of Communism Museum. Sadly, the single greatest number of victims of communism are in Communist China. Many people now recognize that [Chairman] Mao [Zedong] is without question the worst mass murderer in the history of mankind; worse than Stalin, worse than Hitler. And the first thing you can’t say about China is that China Is an Evil Empire, which is echoed, of course, in what Ronald Reagan said about Communist Russia in 1983. And Xi Jinping, its current dictator, is a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist to the core. And that is so critical because it explains not only what it does to its own people but what it does to other nations to include the United States. And I wrote this book in order to ring the alarm. I’m often asked because of my word on the Intelligence Committee and the Armed Services Committee if the threat from China is really as bad as it seems … And unfortunately, my answer is: ‘No, it’s worse than you might imagine.’”
Some other the senator’s other noteworthy comments during the evening include (paraphrasing here):
- Granting China Most-favored nation/Permanent Normal Trade Relations status and allowing the People’s Republic of China (PRC) into the World Trade Organization were quite possibly the biggest strategic blunders in U.S. history.
- Contrary to mainstream media’s hysterical claims, President Donald Trump is not starting a “trade war” with China via those controversial tariffs; rather, he’s simply joining the trade war that China has been waging against us for decades.
- When was the last time you saw a major Hollywood motion picture featuring a Chinese villain or depicting the PRC in any sort of negative light? You have to go all the way back to 1997, when the film Seven Years in Tibet (starring Brad Pitt) was released. Since then, Hollywood studios have become totally cowed by Beijing.
Regarding the “China Can Win” chapter, Sen. Cotton made it abundantly clear that he’s not a gloom-and-doomer saying China will win, but rather cautioning against complacency. Indeed, he expresses hope that (again, paraphrasing here), just like with the original Evil Empire, i.e., the Soviet Union, China can be defeated without firing a shot if we as a nation play our cards right.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr was previously a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ) and 19FortyFive. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.
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