Stop Sleeping With The Enemy - The Desperate Need For A New China Policy
Imagine the Cuban Missile Crisis but with a few wrinkles thrown in. Let’s assume that even as the Russians were moving nuclear missiles to Cuba, we were completely economically in bed with Moscow. Consider what the impact would have been if we had been reliant on Russia for pharmaceuticals, clothing, and electronics. Think how it would have weighed on President Kennedy’s mind if he knew that Khrushchev could cut off at will the flow of critical products and raw materials and plunge the United States and the world into an economic depression.
Perhaps things would have played out a little differently.
Maybe that all sounds like science fiction. We wish it were. We find ourselves right now in exactly that same situation vis a vis Communist China and Taiwan. A de facto blockade of Taiwan has been imposed by Beijing and the ongoing Chinese “live-fire exercises” have just been extended. Beijing may well maintain this blockade indefinitely and strangle the Taiwanese into submission.
The implications are enormous. If Taiwan falls and we do nothing every ally we have on the planet will know they are now on their own. Every enemy we have will know it is time to move against us. And, not incidentally, in one fell swoop the Chinese will seize control of the lion’s share of the world’s chip manufacturing capability. From that point on it if you want to make anything –from a car to a cellphone to a computer – you will have to have Beijing’s approval to do so.
We must respond. We must not let Beijing seize control of this island nation. And, yet, even were we not saddled with an incompetent Chinese puppet for a President we would be hard pressed to do so.
The United States ran a trade deficit of $200,096,600,000 with the People’s Republic of China in the first six months of 2022. That was the largest trade deficit the United States ever ran with any nation in the world. We buy everything from the Chinese. They buy almost nothing from us.
Over 70% of pharmaceutical ingredients used in the U.S. market are produced overseas – much of it in China. Almost all of the ibuprofen sold in America comes from China. Half of our supply of the anti-coagulant heparin comes from Beijing. Most of the medical devices used in the United States come from China as well.
The leading supplier of 5G equipment — and the largest owner of patents — is Huawei, not Cisco Systems. American television manufacturers long ago moved all production to China.
Many years ago we began to import cheap, low-quality goods from China. Over time that has changed dramatically. Yes, we buy sneakers from Beijing, in fact, 70% of the shoes we wear are made in China. We also buy high-end electronics, medical equipment, and even defense supplies. Seventy-two percent of all smartphones are of Chinese manufacture.
China has every intention of expanding on its gains and dominating the production of high technology. Its Made in China 2025 plan lays out an intention to dominate the world economy in blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, semiconductor and chip-making technology, and biotech.
China is firmly in control of all the components of Biden’s Green New Deal. Electric vehicles and wind turbines all need magnets and rare earth minerals supplied by China. In fact, the more we move toward this new “utopia” the more reliant we become on Communist China. Just as once we were held hostage by OPEC we are now increasingly owned by Beijing.
China is officially the world’s second-largest economy, but even that statistic conceals an ugly truth. Much of the U.S. economy is in services. China is by far the world’s largest manufacturer. It accounts for 28.7% of all manufacturing output on the planet.
We no longer make most of the things on which our modern economy depends. Increasingly, we find it difficult to manufacture domestically even the things our military needs to defend our nation. The wings for the newest version of our C-130 transport aircraft have to be made in India and shipped here.
The immediate problem is the Chinese blockade of Taiwan. The larger, enduring issue is our economic relationship with China. We were told decades ago that by opening up to China we would encourage that nation to liberalize and democratize. We were also told that as the Chinese got richer they would buy more goods from us.
None of this has proved true. China is just as totalitarian as it ever was. Its people are just as oppressed. The only thing we have done is to make our greatest enemy, the Chinese Communist Party, dramatically more powerful and dangerous.
It is time not just to push back on the Taiwan issue but to radically change course economically. We must recognize as a matter of national policy that the Chinese Communist Party is our mortal enemy. We must adopt a policy of weaning ourselves off of dependence on Beijing and bringing back on shore our critical industries. We must also stop the flow of investment dollars to China and redirect those into domestic industries.
If we want to actually be able to stand up to the Chinese militarily we must rebuild our manufacturing base, cut free of Chinese imports and be able once again to stand on our own two feet. The first step to being able to win a war is getting out of bed with the enemy.
I remember Newt saying in Trump vs. China a few years ago that if we didn't get control of 5G, that China would control the world because they would be able to surveil literally everybody. His biggest fear was a Biden admin, or something similar. Meanwhile, one of my trucks has been sitting at a Peterbilt dealer in Lancaster, PA for a month and a half waiting on a sensor that they have no idea when it will arrive, yet my expenses on that truck continue on, the driver quit because the only available rentals aren't even safe to be on the road, because so many of their units are down waiting for--you guessed it--sensors, and/or chips.
Well, the Good News is that Bid-ens New Green Deal won't have it's needed components. Nancy Pelousy's Trip was just a pre-arranged Set Up with the ChiComs to initiate their Blockade Pogrom.
The Bid-en (OBAMA) Regime is quite pleased to have the ChiComs cut us off, Comrades. Welcome to the USSA!!!