There is one silver lining about the Wuhan virus crisis, and that is that Americans are finally awakening to the threat that China has posed to the US and the world. The Chinese have publicly advertised what their long-term goals are, i.e., world domination through economic means and coercion if necessary. The Chinese have a long-term plan to achieve worldwide economic dominance, have broadcast it for the world to see, and have diligently pursuing it to the maximum, especially in Asia and Africa, but also in Italy, as the Italians and Europeans in general are finding out the hard way in this crisis. That strategy is called One Belt One Road (OBOR), or the Belt-Road Initiative (BRI), which is a collection of development and investment initiatives stretching from East Asia to Europe that would significantly expand China’s economic and political influence, if not dominance within the region.
Of even greater concern is China’s Made in China 2025 initiative. Announced in 2015, the initiative is aimed at increasing the competitiveness of Chinese industries, fostering Chinese brands, boosting innovation, and reducing China’s reliance on foreign technology by making China a major or dominant global manufacturer of various technologies. According to Chinese media, the initiative intends to “transform China from a manufacturing giant into a world manufacturing power” by 2049. For example, the plan states a goal of achieving 40% of domestically manufactured basic components and basic materials by the end of this year and 70% by 2025 (but the Wuhan virus will crimp those plans bigly!). China is aiming to become the world’s leading manufacturer of telecommunication, railway, and electrical power equipment by 2025 while China’s robotics, high-end automation, and new energy vehicles industries would globally rank second or third by 2025. The methods used by the Chinese government involve large subsidies, protection of domestic industries, directed policies to purchase technology and IPR from abroad, increased pressure on foreign firms to transfer technology in order to do business in China, and what appears to be a goal of deliberately reducing foreign participation in China’s markets. In parallel, there are continuing massive actions by the Chinese to steal US intellectual property through an active spying operation in the US.
Many US experts who have been sounding the alarm about these Chinese strategies in recent years, including Gordon Chang, Michael Pillsbury, and Victor Davis Hanson, but the US political class have essentially given them the back of the hand. Some of them, like the Clintons, Bidens, and Feinstein, have been on the Chinese dole for decades. That all changed when a non-politician won the presidency in 2016.
President Trump has been right to push back on China from the very beginning. Re-balancing US-China trade has been a priority. With the Wuhan virus, Americans are learning about the dependency on China supply chains for 90% of the precursors for our drug supplies, as well as semi-conductors, rare earths, and other critical elements that underpin the American economy. There are new proposals in Congress to reduce our dependency on China for pharmaceuticals, as noted here. Additionally, there have been discussions about permitting 100% write-offs for relocating strategic industries back to the US.
But these are only half-measures. What about the enormous hit to the US economy this year? The stock market has suffered enormous losses, as companies struggle to cope with the impact of the virus. For example, as reported Thursday:
As of the close of trading on March 19, those four companies — Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet — along with Facebook have lost a combined $1.3 trillion in value since the market peaked.
And that is only four companies! Imagine the total hit worldwide, thanks to the Wuhan virus!
It is no surprise that the Chinese propaganda machine is pulling out all the stops to shift responsibility and culpability for the spread of the virus around the world. They want to avoid real liability, including of the legal variety.
China’s cover-up has cost lives, and they have ruined their international reputation and are due for a reckoning on the world stage. The start of that day of reckoning was a massive class-action lawsuit filed in a US district court against the Chinese government:
[$20 trillion.] That’s what a class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas is demanding from China for allowing the coronavirus to spread from the city of Wuhan around the world, forcing unprecedented restrictions on public life that could trigger economic recession or even depression.
On Tuesday, Larry Klayman, the founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch and a former federal prosecutor, filed the complaint against China, the People’s Liberation Army, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and several individuals.
But even that is not enough! Let us consider the impact on the US national debt after the various incentives and bailouts are passed into law as the federal government tries to minimize the impact of the virus on the US economy. The estimated $2-3 trillion that will be allocated to individuals and businesses will be added to the US debt, which is now over $23 trillion. Why should future generations of Americans have to deal with that additional debt when the culprit is Communist China?
Note that China holds about $1.07 trillion of US debt as of the end of 2019. The ChiComs have an opportunity to demonstrate their self-proclaimed “magnanimity and altruism” and regain the goodwill that they have lost by covering up the Wuhan virus. They can forgive all of the debt they hold around the world, including that $1.07 trillion of US debt. They can prove to the world that they are good citizens.
Or confirm what we already know about the behavior of Communist regimes throughout human history.
The end.
