Every time we buy a cheap product from China, we’re not just saving a few dollars. Instead, we’re feeding a regime that seeks to undermine the democratic values we claim to hold dear. As Edouard Prisse powerfully argues in We Were Funding China’s Growth That Must Stop!, the exponential increase in China’s power is happening with our money. The consequences of this are existential.
Yes, cheap Chinese goods flood our markets, and we enjoy lower prices. But at what cost? Our industries are collapsing, our manufacturing base is shrinking, and China, a one-party authoritarian regime, is amassing unprecedented economic, political, and military power. This trade imbalance has become a pipeline for Western decline and Eastern dominance.
China’s foreign exchange reserves, exceeding $3.1 trillion as of 2023 (source: IMF), are largely the result of this lopsided trade. And Beijing doesn’t sit on that cash. For instance, it uses it to buy ports, influence elections, fund infrastructure in Africa and Latin America, and prop up regimes that oppose democratic norms. In short, it’s buying the future.
Many respond to this reality with fatalism: “It’s too late,” they say. “China is unstoppable.” Prisse, however, provides a sobering counterargument: if we continue to allow it to happen, it will only be too late. If we continue free trade as is, China’s dominance is assured. But if we stop this self-inflicted economic enrichment of our main rival, we still have a chance to alter course.
Western societies are built on freedoms, be it freedom of speech, human rights, independent courts, unions, and the right to strike and protest. China fears these freedoms because they threaten its Communist control. And the more powerful China becomes (thanks to our consumer choices and political inaction), the more those freedoms come under indirect attack.
Compare this to Russia. While the Ukraine war is a clear military crisis, it is not a long-term existential threat to global democracy. Russia’s influence has shrunk since the Cold War. China, on the other hand, has grown exponentially since 2001, the year we foolishly embraced free trade with Beijing. That was our major economic mistake, and the longer we ignore it, the worse the consequences will be.
However, we need to realize that the United States is the only nation with the size and power to put an end to this inequality and free trade. Europe, sadly, lacks the economic clarity and political will. But if the U.S. leads, others will follow, as we have seen in the past and in the most recent times.
Of course, bringing trade with China back to “manageable proportions” will face fierce opposition, especially from corporate lobbies focused on quarterly profits, not national security. But the longer we prioritize short-term comfort over long-term survival and continued free trade with China, the more irreversible this power shift becomes.
Therefore, we must accept some short-term discomfort (fewer cheap goods) in exchange for preserving our democratic future. That’s the trade-off and the price of sovereignty we all need to secure our future.
For more information and insight, please read We Were Funding China’s Growth That Must Stop!
Order your copy from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1967963053.
