When the New York Post published emails in October raising doubts about Joe Biden’s claims he’d never discussed his son’s business dealings, many dismissed the story as “Russian disinformation”—and some suppressed it. As for Mr. Swalwell’s China connection, the New York Times still refuses even to mention it. . . .

Their cases are only a microcosm of what Secretary of State Mike Pompeo complains is an all-out Chinese Communist Party effort “to make Americans receptive to Beijing’s form of authoritarianism.” China does this on multiple fronts, often masquerading under the banner of “friendship” associations. But the agenda is always the same: to use whatever tools it has to mute opposition to China.. . . .

In a September speech to state legislators, Mr. Pompeo cited Roger Roth, president of the Wisconsin Senate, as another Chinese target. Mr. Roth received an email from Wu Ting, wife of the Chinese consul general in Chicago, that asked him to “consider adopting a resolution expressing solidarity with the Chinese people in fighting the coronavirus.” . . .

Such actions help explain why Mr. Pompeo recently shut down five “cultural exchange” programs that allowed congressional staffers to travel to China on trips paid for by Beijing. . . .

Or take China’s theft of data and intellectual property, including research on Covid-19. This columnist, who worked in the George W. Bush White House, had his personal information stolen by China in a 2015 hack of the Office of Personnel Management. . . .

American campuses are a particularly soft target. In 2019 Columbia President Lee Bollinger presented himself as a champion of free speech in a Washington Post op-ed in which he declared, “No, I won’t start spying on my foreign-born students.” But he said nothing about Columbia’s Confucius Institute, an institution Mr. Pompeo calls “part of the Chinese Communist Party’s global influence and propaganda apparatus,” or reports that Columbia’s Global Center in Beijing has canceled talks that might upset Chinese officials. Or the likelihood that China is spying on Columbia’s Chinese students.

The is the missing backdrop to the Hunter Biden and Eric Swalwell cases. Mr. Swalwell isn’t accused of any wrongdoing, but does anyone believe he is the only U.S. politician (or staffer) compromised by a Chinese honey trap? . . .

Next July marks the 50th anniversary of Henry Kissinger’s secret trip to China. China has changed much since then, and so has its approach to America. Joe Biden might be tempted to think his son’s case and that of Mr. Swalwell will pass. But they won’t, because they are part of a much larger and more sinister China story to which Americans are only now waking up.