America’s dependence on China for goods in many ways has been a drag on our economy for decades, and if this wasn’t clear to us before, the coronavirus ought to help put it into perspective.

China played a rigged game for the better part of 40 years to tilt the worldwide economic balance of power in its favor. Manipulating its currency, engaging in illegal trade practices, industrial espionage, and other dirty tactics should have isolated the totalitarian regime from global trade. Instead, China was rewarded by convincing many major American and European manufacturers to set up shop there. Furthermore, it used low-paid and sometimes prison labor to manufacture and sell goods in the American market and elsewhere so cheaply that other countries simply couldn’t afford to compete at that level and remain in business.

It wasn’t until Donald Trump became president that the United States finally acted against China’s underhanded tactics. But it will take more than some strategic tariffs to undo the damage done by the communist regime — and previous administrations.

The coronavirus outbreak — which followed China’s three-week New Year break — has all but brought Chinese manufacturing and exports to a halt. U.S. businesses reliant on components from China are facing long wait-times for delivery that range from six to 15 weeks. These major disruptions to the global supply chain will cost American businesses billions of dollars as they work to reschedule construction projects, adjust product orders, and attempt to belay investor concerns. Global tech giants Microsoft, Apple, and Nintendo are all already looking at reduced second-quarter earnings.

One particularly unhealthy aspect of our dependence on China is that country’s dominance of the medical supply chain. Large portions of major American pharmaceuticals are manufactured in China, and we could face a shortage of these products.

Goldman Sachs predicts stagnant earnings growth for the rest of 2020, and best estimates put current investment losses tied to the coronavirus at $2 trillion. Cooler heads on Wall Street still maintain that the stock market is experiencing a course correction and not taking a dive. Of course, Democrats and their Leftmedia propagandists are fanning the flames of panic. They would love nothing more than to see a ravaged American economy because that is the surest way to defeat Trump in November.

It could be, though, that the coronavirus outbreak that has been symbolic of our economic dependence on China could also be the thing that ultimately breaks that hold. Researchers have noted that the virus outbreak comes at a time when China is facing a series of challenges to its economic power. Its economy has been slowing for several years, the country has saturated global markets to the point that expanding exports is quite challenging, and the Trump tariffs dealt it a severe economic blow. And let us not forget that China is a totalitarian regime oppressing its people and seeking hegemony by means of force; it’s not generally considered a model for long-term economic success.

This doesn’t mean that the U.S. has to stand by and wait for China to fall by the wayside, because it may not. Instead, our great nation needs to be more proactive by not only diversifying overseas investments and manufacturing but pushing hard to invest in America First. The United States should lead the world in manufacturing, and moving toward such leadership and care for our own citizens should be paramount in the minds of America’s leading corporations and its elected leaders.