By Michael Todd
Throughout the last three decades, the United States worked hard to help China become a WTO member, but goodwill has not been reciprocated. With help from the U.S., China built the second-largest economy in the world and the largest free-standing military. That was not enough, so they have chosen to develop their one belt, one road policy, with the intent of supplanting foreign governments with ones accepting of their ambitions. The policy has also taken to stealing intellectual property, blackmail, debt traps, and a slew of other schemes to foment their agenda.
How is China’s siphoning money and influence away from the United States? To put into perspective the amount of intellectual theft being committed by the Chinese, it extracts up to 2.6 percent of our GDP every year. That is roughly 500 billion dollars each year taken from American businesses. That is more than the purchased goods we import from China every year. The blatant theft committed by China and their disregard for human rights, territorial boundaries, the spread of COVID, and our allies’ exploitation have severely damaged relations with the United States.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said that “the stakes could not be higher, and the potential economic harm to American businesses and the economy as a whole almost defies calculation.” Among U.S. security officials, this concern predates the well-known pivot toward competition with China that has arisen since 2017. In July 2012, the U.S. National Security Agency director, General Keith Alexander, identified Chinese IP theft as the “greatest transfer of wealth in history.” Furthermore, the director emphasized the tactics being used to perpetrate such crimes against our country. China’s “diverse and multi-layered approach” to IP theft utilizes a plethora of tactics, from “outright physical theft” to cyberhacking.” China has proven that its ambitions take precedent over worldwide trade homogeneity.
“China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man,” Biden said in Iowa City, Iowa, in May 2019. “They can’t figure out how they’re going to deal with the corruption that exists within the system.”
He added: “They’re not bad folks, folks. … They’re not competition for us.”
Unfortunately, the United States’ political class would instead bury their heads in the sand, hoping it would go away. It took Donald Trump shaking up the system to highlight the aggressive nature of China’s trade practices. Don’t forget that Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and many others in the political class wanted to sign America’s economic future away with the TPP by allowing it to supersede our financial regulations. This would have wreaked havoc on our economy and handed financial regulation over to a world body. By putting the spotlight on China’s disregard for trade stability, their destructive policies toward other countries have also come to light.