Editor’s Note: The following is Part 3 of a five-part series on the Chinese government’s role in the spread and severity of the Wuhan coronavirus, this one covering the American wealth transferred to Red China. For Part One, click here. And for Part Two, click here.

In the 1980s, Chinese ruler Deng Xiaoping supposedly proclaimed that “to get rich is glorious.”

Deng is the communist Chinese ruler who is most often credited with introducing market economics to the Chinese communist political system.

The result over the past 30+ years has been that Red China has become extremely wealthy.

This has meant many things to Americans. “Like what?,” you might ask. Besides cheap goods and trinkets and cheap labor for Silicon Valley, what has this meant to Americans?

Well, just take a look at what the communist party of China has spent a lot of that wealth on.

For example, the wealth generated from that economic growth has enabled China to build a modern blue-water naval fleet almost from scratch.

Shortly after Operation Desert Storm the U.S. Navy was by far the largest and most modern naval force in the world with 529 total ships.

At about that same time, communist China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) included no modern warships—no aircraft carriers, no cruisers and no modern destroyers or frigates. The PLAN had a few nuclear powered submarines, but they, like China’s fleet of destroyers and frigates, were a full generation or more behind those that made up the U.S. fleet.

Today, almost 30 years later, the U.S. Navy has a total of about 291 ships.

Over the same 30 years, meanwhile, the PLAN has been transformed from a virtual non-factor to a major, modern blue water force. Today the PLAN is made up of around 400 ships and submarines. Most are no match for modern U.S. vessels, but that is changing—and rapidly.

As this is being written the PLAN has under construction as many as 3 aircraft carriers, a class of modern guided missile destroyers, two classes of amphibious assault ships and nuclear submarines to add to the 18 already in service.

How did the PLAN go from a virtual non-factor 30 years ago to the U.S. Navy’s chief challenger today?

The answer can be found in the meteoric rise of Red China’s economy over the past 30 years to the point that today it is the world’s 2nd largest. The wealth generated from that economic growth has enabled China to build a modern blue-water fleet almost from scratch.

China gets much of its wealth from trade with the West. In other words, we—you—have funded the PLAN, which is aimed directly at the U.S. Navy.

But that’s not the whole story.

As part of that trade, China has received direct technology transfers that it has used to modernize its entire country, its naval fleet and the rest of its military included. Without the huge infusion of high-tech know-how and gear, China would never have been able to develop the advanced radar systems, propulsion systems and weapons that make its fleet the modern threat that it is today.

In other words, we have financed and enabled a serious—and growing–threat that didn’t even exist 30 years ago.

On 1 October, Red China celebrated its 70^th anniversary. To commemorate that event, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) put on a massive display of military power in the form of a parade. Along with the usual marching formations, tanks and armored and wheeled vehicles, the PLA displayed stealth aircraft, stealth drones, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), Sea Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) and supersonic anti-ship missiles.

Make no mistake, all of that military hardware is aimed squarely at the U.S.A. Furthermore, much of the technology involved in the design, manufacture and operation of that advanced weaponry ultimately comes from Western—especially American—sources. Some of it was stolen, but a good deal of it was gleaned from civilian applications which were adapted to military use.

Many Americans don’t want to hear this for both political and business reasons, but the U.S. and China are adversaries.  And China is today’s evil empire.

And now for the rest of the story: not only have we indirectly funded Red China’s military modernization program, but millions of Americans are unwittingly investing their hard-earned dollars in the very Red Chinese conglomerates that manufacture the weapons aimed at us. Among such companies are AVIC Aircraft Co., Ltd. and China Shipbuilding Industry Power Co Ltd.

AVIC manufactures components and parts for seven different types of fighter aircraft for Red China, including their new stealth fighter, the J-31, which looks suspiciously like the U.S. Air Force’s F-22 and F-35.

China Shipbuilding Industry Power Co Ltd builds power systems, including nuclear power systems for submarines. Its parent company, China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), builds warships and submarines.

Welcome to the new Cold War. Unlike the last Cold War, you’re funding both sides in this one.

But a massive, modern military aimed at us isn’t the only thing doing business with Red China has gotten us. Before the Wuhan virus, outsourcing manufacturing and jobs to Red China has also gotten us some other really bad deals, as we shall see in part 4 of this series.