The Unique and Troubling Relationship Between the U.S. and China

In President Biden’s remarks on February 16th about the shooting down of various objects in the sky, he talked about our relationship with China. The President stated that we want competition with China, not conflict. He also said we do not want another Cold War with the communist nation.

We certainly do not want a military conflict with China. However, there is a solid case to be made that we have been in a conflict with China for a long while. As far as competition goes, if that is the kind of conflict of which the President speaks—we are dramatically losing. China already outmatches us as a competitor. Additionally, when Biden says we do not want another Cold War—this time with China instead of Soviet Russia—he is ignoring an inconvenient reality: We are in the beginning stages of a Cold War with China right now. As always, when we want to have peace and not go to war—cold or hot—the enemy also gets a vote.

Economically, China is eating our metaphorical lunch. The COVID pandemic revealed how very dependent on China we are for basic medical supplies, including gowns, gloves, masks, surgical supplies, and more. The supply chain crisis that followed the pandemic revealed that much of our over-the-counter medication is now Chinese-made. We now know that much of the fertilizer American farmers use is imported from China. Shortages of fertilizer directly impact food production in the United States. China is buying thousands of acres of American farmland, much of it adjacent to U.S. military installations.

The U.S. national debt has increased by $5 trillion since 2020. With the U.S. budget always in a deficit and the ongoing spending spree at the federal level—the CBO estimates that the national debt will increase by $2 trillion a year for the next decade. That means the $31 trillion on the U.S. credit card will grow to $51 trillion. For the last three years, our national debt has been larger than our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the first time since World War II. President Biden refuses to negotiate with congressional leaders over raising the debt limit if it means cutting spending. One-third of the federal budget is discretionary. Washington refuses to cut spending, and the debt rises exponentially.

China owns much of the U.S. debt. We owe the People’s Republic of China for our out-of-control spending. They carry a significant portion of our debt.

Yet because slave labor and low wages in China make for lower prices on products we use in the U.S., there is little inclination to free ourselves from a dangerous dependence on our adversary. Healthy bottom lines for U.S. corporations trump national security for the moment. It seems that most Americans—oblivious to the real cost of cheap products at our big box stores—like the lower prices and don’t think about where and how the products are made.

In the competition of which Biden speaks, the United States is not winning.

A new Cold War? The White House stressed this week that we do not seek conflict with China, despite the Chinese spy balloon’s traveling across our country. When Defense Secretary Austin called his Chinese counterpart, the Chinese Minister of Defense refused to accept the call. Bonny Lin, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told a Senate committee last Wednesday, “I’m not surprised that Secretary Austin’s counterpart did not pick up the phone. . . . It shows that across the U.S. engagement with China, our military-to-military ties and relationship is relatively weak. And despite the efforts of this Administration to focus on deconfliction, crisis communication with the PLA (People’s Liberation Army), we have not made significant progress.”

For example, after the takedown of the Chinese balloon off the coast of South Carolina, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin warned that Beijing is prepared to respond with unspecified countermeasures. Last week, Ned Price of the U.S. State Department condemned the Chinese coast guard for using a military-grade laser against a Philippine ship, temporarily blinding its crew. We have a defense treaty with the Philippines. China continues to illegally claim islands in the South China Sea and build military bases there. China harasses fishing boats from Vietnam.

China is rapidly pursuing nuclear superiority to the U.S. Last month, the Pentagon reported that China now has more intercontinental ballistic launchers than the U.S. China is now producing nuclear warheads to place on missiles in these launchers at a rapid pace. Recently, China introduced its new strategic bomber. That plane, which is capable of carrying a nuclear bomb, along with nuclear-capable submarines, means that China now possesses the same nuclear triad that has been key to our own defense for decades: planes, subs, and land-based nuclear weapons. A few years ago, China had about 200 nuclear warheads. Our Department of Defense estimates that China will have over 1,000 nuclear warheads in the next 5-7 years.

America’s nuclear arsenal, while formidable, is aging. While we are modernizing our capabilities, it is a slow process. The U.S. is still working on a nuclear, sea-launched cruise missile. In the Wall Street Journal, Patty-Jane Geller of The Heritage Foundation states this type of nuclear missile would give the U.S. a smaller, more proportional response to China or Russia if they used a tactical nuclear device. The bottom line is our nuclear arsenal was designed to take on the Soviet Union (now  Russia). America’s nuclear forces would struggle if we had to fight Russia and China at the same time. Whether the Administration likes it or not, we are in a nuclear arms race with China.

President Biden may not want another Cold War, nor do we. But it appears the new Cold War with China is already underway. We are not winning the commercial/financial competition with China due to our own unwillingness to detach from China and begin producing products in America again, cut our spending, and decrease the deficit. China is enlarging and modernizing its military. They are increasing their nuclear arsenal dramatically. They have threatened to invade Taiwan, frequently act aggressively with our Indo-Pacific partners, and are supporting Vladimir Putin’s Russia and its invasion of Ukraine.

Thankfully, we are not in a shooting war with China. However, we are in a conflict with the communist nation. It is a multi-faceted conflict that involves the U.S. military and the U.S. economy. Wishing it away or pretending that China is a mere competitor—not an adversary—will not change that reality.

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