China’s Clear and Present Threat

While the Left continues to lose its mind over Russia and the fairytale of collusion, the fact is Russia simply is not a real threat to the future of our democracy. By any measure, the threat to America’s future freedom is China.

When Trump first brought up the issue of tariffs, a great wailing erupted from the free traders on the Right decrying that he was about to begin a trade war. While it’s a convenient narrative to say that this is about a trade war, it’s fundamentally not that at all. Sure, if tariffs really did kick in and goods were to go up in price, and if in response to this China slapped tariffs on American goods, there would be a trade war. But think of tariffs on steel and aluminum as an opening salvo, a skirmish, about something far bigger: we are already immersed in economic warfare with China, in a great struggle to see who controls the technology of the future and what our future as a country really looks like.

The reason Trump must play hardball with China on trade right now is that China doesn’t want to win an economic competition in a free trade arena and it doesn’t want trade partners: it wants to dominate and create tributaries.

What Does America Want to Be?


Read the full op-ed at American Greatness.