Medium - Kinzinger Op-Ed to Push Back on China's Aggression

Op-Ed

By Rep. Adam Kinzinger

The United States can no longer view China simply as an economic competitor. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has evolved into a clear and present national security threat that must be addressed now. This reality took some time to sink in, but the coronavirus pandemic, which has left over 100,000 Americans dead and tens of millions suffering financial hardship, has removed all doubt.

Since discovering the virus in Wuhan, the CCP silenced doctors and scientists trying to sound the alarms, shut down social media across the country, and threatened to withhold lifesaving drugs from the world. These actions, combined with their latest infringement upon Hong Kong's special status determining its self-governance, demonstrate how the CCP's authoritarian system threatens the free world.

As the spread of the coronavirus accelerated, we quickly came to understand just how vulnerable our supply chains had become. Our global dependence on China's labor market allowed the CCP to consolidate critical manufacturing sectors.

As cities begin to reopen across the globe, we are not out of the clear.

No one knows what the next week or year will bring. What we do know is that China is using this time to undermine the United States, our allies, and our associated freedoms wherever they can. A world where America takes a back seat to Chinese leadership is a world where democracy dies, freedom recedes, and authoritarianism reigns. Both as a nation and as individuals, we must accept this threat as fact and work together to protect the free market and our democratic systems that protect life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness around the world.

In the last six months, China has shifted its diplomatic focus from an outwardly passive strategy to a more aggressive diplomacy to consolidate power and use all of their supply chain tools to maintain political influence around the world. The United States must take an active role in protecting critical supply infrastructure for us and our allies. We can't have one country hold the entire world hostage because of a key component in a cell phone, a rare mineral for a drug, or the limited manufacturing capacity for a chemical used to clean water.

Accordingly, the U.S. must act -- on our own and with our allies -- to attract investment and regionalize our supply chains. Our focus should support directing various types of assistance to nations in our hemisphere, including diplomatic and political support to strengthen legal and regulatory environments. We should work to establish economic opportunity zones to attract new investment, promote business development, and enhance regional supply chains. In doing so, we would give priority to projects essential to U.S. national interests, as well as those that help us shore up our Strategic National Stockpiles, raise living standards, and increase job opportunities.

We also need to rapidly expand bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, focusing on our hemisphere as well as Asia-Pacific and Europe. We need to take a leading role on the world stage to ensure China alone isn't writing the rules on global trade, leaving Americans out of lucrative markets.

In the midst of the global pandemic, some may ask, "Why should we make all this effort to help other nations when we're hurting here at home?"

The honest answer is that doing these things will help both the U.S. and our allies.

First, we need to remember that the CCP started its campaign to overtake the U.S. as a superpower decades before the world realized this "hundred-year marathon' existed. Just take the Belt-and-Road Initiative and the 2050 Plan as proof. And, we know the CCP has slowly increased its footprint in our own backyard.

As the crisis in Venezuela reached a fever pitch last year, dictator Nicolas Maduro was supported by President Xi Jinping and the CCP. As I pointed out then, the CCP's goal is to establish a military and economic foothold in the Western Hemisphere to undermine stability and pose a substantial security threat to the U.S. -- a threat not based in Beijing, but right here in the Americas. These attempts to undermine the U.S. from this proximal vantage point are wholly unacceptable, and the most effective countermeasure is increased engagement -- not indifference.

Lastly, fostering economic growth abroad is perhaps the best way to address the root cause of emigration to the U.S. Improved economic conditions elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere would yield not only prosperity but political stability, thereby reducing one's need to leave home in search of better opportunity.

As we address these complex issues, we must understand that countering 20- and 50-year plans will require bold action. Perhaps less obvious, but equally important, is that we must also be strategic and forward-looking. As difficult as things are in the U.S. today, we cannot allow temporary conditions to dictate policy-making and planning for tomorrow. We must address the problems of today with our minds on the future.

As a member of the China Task Force, I'm working to address these issues and pushing for legislation that will foster more innovation in our manufacturing and ensure our supply chains are strong.

The United States must lead by creating economic prosperity and social development -- not only for the American people, but for all freedom-loving individuals in our hemisphere and around the world. This is not about nationalism versus globalism. Rather, this is about executing a strategy that places economic freedom first so that we may usher in a new century of prosperity and relative peace.

America did not become a beacon of hope by people who sat back in the misguided belief that things would just magically get better. It took the sacrifices of generations before us to risk it all for the greater good. And now, it is our generation's moment to do the same.

Aggressive action from the United States today will secure the economy for future generations. The time for half-measures is in the past. We must move quickly, decisively, and strategically to shape our future -- and we must do it now.

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