Economically, militarily, and geographically, the United States faces a stark and growing threat from China. We have known this for some time but recent examples of cyberterrorism, hacking, industrial espionage and the theft annually of hundreds of billions of dollars of intellectual property highlight this fact. (Over the last decade alone it is estimated that the Chinese government has stolen some $6 trillion of U.S. intellectual property).
President Trump should be highly commended for his America First agenda and for the aggressive and relentless reshaping of the trade relationship between the two countries to address the enormous and unfair trade deficit the U.S. has had with China. In fact, long before he was, or even contemplated becoming president, Donald Trump was sounding the alarm about Chinese economic aggression. The coronavirus crisis proved him correct when the United States and the world suddenly discovered how dependent we all are upon the Chinese supply chain for a wide variety of pharmaceuticals and other related products. This development underscores why it is so concerning that over the decades much of American manufacturing has left the U.S. and relocated in China.
As we reflect on our American history we can look back and recall that at one time it was both helpful and necessary—to protect American foreign policy and national security interests—to, diplomatically and strategically, align with China in order to bracket the former Soviet Union and check its international aggressions. However, that time is long past as we are now engaged in a similar cold war with China itself.
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) cruel, dark, and repressive history (the CCP has executed over 100 million of its own people in the last century, as it now murders the Uyghurs in a campaign of genocide and brutally crushes the Christian faith—to say nothing of its one-child policy which has resulted in more than 500 million unborn babies slaughtered by abortion) has made clear that the CCP would not hesitate to create the Covid 19 virus in that Wuhan lab and then weaponize and release it across the world, doing the incalculable damage we continue to witness.
In many respects, various American administrations have greatly contributed to this problem by, for example, making enormous economic benefits available to China by granting “Most Favored Nation” trading status—as well as membership in the World Trade Organization. We have also tolerated the continued diminishment of our military power with respect to China while we, narrowly and shortsightedly, viewed America’s principal enemy to be Islamic terrorists in the Middle East as we prosecuted the War on Terror.
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Although the Trump Administration strove mightily to “catch up” our depleted military we do not currently have the ability to militarily counter either the encroachment by the Chinese navy or the building of multiple military installations in the South China Sea. It is also unnerving to realize the Chinese military is presently developing an advanced fighter aircraft that will likely equal our best fighter aircraft.
The CCP has made clear that it will absolutely do whatever it determines is necessary to win what it sees as an inevitable war between itself and the U.S. This includes conventional—and even nuclear—warfare, terrorism, and biological, cyber, economic, data and political warfare. The U.S. simply has no choice but to begin to plan aggressively to rebuff this multifaceted threat to America’s safety, security, and viability.
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