By: Jake García-Falchook
Right now in China, millions of Uighur Muslims are locked in concentration camps where they are converted away from their heritage, against their will. Right now in China, the people of Hong Kong are bravely fighting for independence but are actively being suppressed by a government clearly trying to take away freedoms. Right now in China, hundreds of billions of dollars (up to $600 Billion/year) of intellectual property are being stolen from America. Right now in China, currency manipulation and currency devaluation is happening breaking several trade rules and actively undermining the United States. Right now in China, privacy rights barely exist with the government constantly spying on its own people trying to influence their behavior.
If you watched the mainstream media would they tell you this or would you hear the reality of what is going on? No, the mainstream media, Washington establishment, and limousine liberals would sell our country out in a heartbeat to China because that is what they have been doing for the past 19 years.
They write articles for the NY Times and yell on CNN how Trump is reckless with China, when they are just scared because he is the only man with the guts to take on one of the biggest threats we face, China, a country that has stated several times that they want to replace us as the world power and will do anything for that to happen.
But our country has no economic patriotism. We don’t care. We will sit back and let China run us over and continue to steal, rob us blind, and manipulate their currency. The majority of people in this country weren’t grateful that President Trump was the only anti establishment politician to actually take on China. A majority of Americans have no problem removing tariffs on China and selling us out. The media is working overtime to discredit the tariffs and try to hypnotize the American public to blindly support their globalist agenda, no matter the cost or the impact it has on our country.
But is the Trump strategy with trade working? The numbers say yes. China’s exports to America fell by 16% according to CNBC. This is a wake up call to the one party Communist’s of the Chinese government showing them that they have to come to the negotiating table and to follow the rules. Additionally, companies from Asia that relocated to China are looking to move back to their home countries due to the tariffs.
China’s intellectual property theft from the United States is not small or a light amount. Economist Kevin Hassett put this in perspective.
Kevin Hassett, a long time free trade advocate, agreed with the China tariffs saying: “To put that in perspective, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the art museum, was part of the biggest heist in U.S. history, where [burglars] stole, tragically, $500 million worth of art. And the IP Commission’s estimates of how much China’s stealing from the U.S. mean there’s about a heist that big, every day, 365 days a year. The issue is just that when you see these big numbers, it’s easy to just tune them out. And the fact is that the relationship with China is just utterly unacceptable because of their misbehavior. And the president is standing up to them. Absolutely there are going to be short-term costs associated with that. But I think that the long-run benefit could be enormous.”
The trade war was not a war started by Trump. It was an economic war started by China years ago when they decided to break the rules to actively undermine world trade rules and to maximize their control and power over the world.
Some Democrats recognize this with Senator Schumer saying: “I think if we’re really strong and tough against China and the president takes my advice and gets all the other countries involved, we will come to a very good solution very quickly. I hope he doesn’t back out and come up with a weak solution, because China is going to continue to hurt us over and over again.”
It is clear that America needs to continue to actively and strategically pressure China and continue to get China to the negotiating table.
The US Congress should also pass the USMCA, the new NAFTA trade agreement which will correct the errors of NAFTA while continuing to have a strong, unified North America. The new NAFTA will boost economic growth, increase trade flows between North America, and increase employment benefiting the continent as a whole.
US policy makers and the US public should support our country as a unified front against China’s unfair and unethical trade practices.