China Decoupling
Government leaders believed that engagement and joint relationships would help China become more democratic and integrated into the world. This belief was wrong.
By Laurence F. Sanford
The United States needs to decouple from China. Decoupling means separating or eliminating a relationship. It is a two-way street — China is also decoupling from the United States.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is waging unrestricted warfare against the United States and is using all levers of state power to weaken and corrupt America. CCP organizations are intertwined in all aspects of American society.
Presidents of the United States and leading elite leaders believed that engagement and joint relationships would help China become more democratic and integrated into the world. This belief was wrong. The belief did not consider Chinese chauvinism and communism for world domination. Any action is justified in achieving this goal.
Decoupling needs to begin with terminating or greatly reducing:
- Wall Street financing of major Chinese industrial/military companies. It has made China an industrial and military powerhouse. In doing so, American industries and American society have been hollowed out.
- Silicon Valley high-tech companies’ intimacy with CCP companies. Microsoft admitted that security breaches in its software allowed Chinese hackers to infiltrate U.S. government computers. The Cyber Safety Review Board found a “cascade of errors” by Microsoft that were preventable but occurred because of a corporate culture deprioritizing security. Microsoft maintains data centers and cloud services in China.
- Electric vehicle (EV) and battery technology from China. BYD, the world’s largest EV manufacturer, was once 25% owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway. U.S. government subsidies of domestic EVs support CCP technologies and ruin domestic internal combustion engine industries.
- Universities receiving millions of dollars from CCP entities. The University of Pennsylvania, with CCP money, established the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, DC. Former Vice President Joe Biden had a nominal presence there, and that is where he stored some classified documents. Present-day Secretary of State Antony Blinken was also employed at the Biden Penn Center.
- Students. The number of Chinese students in American universities currently exceeds 300,000. Graduate school engineering and sciences are the primary focus of studies. Many of the students are CCP operatives and steal cutting-edge technologies in university research centers funded with U.S. taxpayer dollars.
- Internet social media. The CCP does not allow American media companies to operate freely in China, yet TikTok operates freely in America. TikTok poisons American society with its logarithms, driving users down rabbit holes of anti-American propaganda and extolling the virtues of CCP-led China.
China is also decoupling from the United States. President XI’s “rejuvenation” of China includes reducing dependence upon the West for electronic chips and other high-value products. The efforts include the largest theft of intellectual property in history through the Internet and the corruption of human assets in government, military, and industry.
The CCP Made in China 2025 project has set aside more than $500 billion in various funds to support indigenous R&D in technologies and products for which China currently depends on foreign companies.
China is also decoupling from the U.S. by developing markets worldwide through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), through which it builds ports and infrastructure financed by onerous loans to the receiving country. Chinese companies are particularly active in Africa and South America, exploiting natural resources to feed China’s industrial furnaces.
The U.S. is decoupling by raising tariffs on Chinese goods and restricting EV access to the American market. Programs to secure security from Chinese cyberhacking are increasing.
American businesses have invested interests in conducting business in China. Many use China as the manufacturing base to export their products worldwide. Others sign joint venture agreements with Chinese companies to sell within China.
Apple employs over three million workers in China. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, it would be very difficult to replace them, as “China has moved into very advanced manufacturing, so you find the intersection of craftsman kind of skill and sophisticated robotics and … computer science… That intersection is very rare and hard to find.”
Action
- Increase tariffs on Chinese goods, whether manufactured in China or elsewhere, including Mexico. The current trade deficit with China is over $500 billion.
- Restrict high-tech exports.
- Limit financial and technical flow.
- Reciprocity. If China does not allow Americans certain actions in China, then the Chinese should not be able to do so in America.
Laurence F. Sanford is a senior analyst at the American Security Council Foundation.
