How To Actually Counter China

As you guys know, I have been a harsh critic of the idea that we need to move the medical supply chain from China to the United States. However, as I have made clear time and time again, this is because I do not feel it matters where the medical supply chain comes from. Call me simple, but I’m not one to act moralistic when it comes to where my medicine comes from.

However, this does not mean that I don’t believe China shouldn’t be countered or competed with. Obviously, they’re an authoritarian state and I believe those should be countered. However, I simply do not feel that protectionism is the way to go about it.

So how would I counter China? Well, off the top of my head:

1. Don’t send a large amount of our PPE to China just before a pandemic enters the United States. For instance, on 2/7/2020, the World Health Organization warned about “the limited stock of PPE,” in various countries. On the same day, President Trump shipped about 35,000 pounds of PPE to China from the United States.
2. Actually give state governments what they need. Over the weekend, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo took 1,000 ventilators donated to him from China. Ignoring the fact that part of the reason they have ventilators to just give away in the first place is because of donations from the President, the fact Cuomo needs this is part of the issue. If the President had given Cuomo the supplies he needs, maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t need to go to our newest enemy to keep the people of New York alive. Just a thought.
3. Use the federal stockpile. Some of my readers might be old enough to remember when the federal stockpile was meant to be given to state governments in the case of an emergency. The web page for it even read “When state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency.” However, that changed all of a sudden on Thursday when, during a press conference, Jared Kushner declared “it’s our stockpile.” Now, the web page reads “The Strategic National Stockpile’s role is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies. Many states have products stockpiled, as well. The supplies, medicine, and devices for life-saving care contained in the stockpile can be used as a short-term stopgap buffer when the immediate supply of adequate amounts of these materials may not be immediately available.” Sorry guys, the point is to help us, not you. I mean, the only reason China has those ventilators is because we gave them the federal stockpile — so technically that counts as using it!
4. When China actually shits the bed, don’t call it a “Democrat hoax” for two months. On 2/1/2020, Surgeon General Jerome Adams poetically Tweeted “Roses are red/Violets are blue/Risk is low for #coronarvirus/But high for the #flu.” On 2/26/2020, President Trump said “And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” And at least here he’s admitting it’s somewhat of an issue. Six days before hand, he said “The Democrats are politicizing the Coronavirus. This is their new hoax.” Two days later, he said “One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia. That didn’t work out too well. They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. That was on a perfect conversation. They tried anything, they tried it over and over, they’ve been doing it since you got in. It’s all turning, they lost, it’s all turning. Think of it. Think of it. And this is their new hoax.” And let’s not forget the great quote from 1/22/2020, also from the President, “No, the Coronavirus won’t become a pandemic. Not at all.”
5. Don’t have a President who’s “easy to read.” This is a direct quote from Chinese President Xi Jinping on American President Donald Trump. Being able to read the person you’re talking to a key component of manipulation, and having a President who can be manipulated by someone who he’s telling us is an enemy seems like a bad idea.

There, five ways off the top of my head that America can counter Chinese influence in the United States. Honorable mentions include not also putting tariffs on other random countries, France for example, because they piss you off; Actually knowing what you’re talking about regarding trade deals, such as, off the top of my head, not saying the North American Free Trade Agreement increased trade with China; and not talking down to the poor of our nation by insulting the idea of “cheap goods.”

Of course, I suspect this will not do much because simply decreasing trade with China is not the end goal, isolationism is. While a few of them, Pat Buchanan for example, have always been open about this, a good amount of these new anti-China activists are more concerned about appearing as reasonable then giving their true agenda.

Are you really expecting me to believe that these guys support trade with free nations? If that’s the case, why did Trump go after a trade deal with South Korea in his RNC speech?

This isn’t about China, it’s about isolationism.