Is The U.S. Up To China's Challenge?

After decades of pretending China might be a friendly ally in the world, we've now seen the Tiger's real stripes.

The truth is, the Cold War with China began in 2000, with its accession to the World Trade Organization.

The U.S. and its allies gave China virtually unhampered, non-tariff access to our markets, enabling it to pile up trillions of dollars in trade surpluses.

These surpluses allowed China to increase defense spending from 2000 to 2020 by an average of 10.4% a year, a likely lowball estimate given China's proclivity for hiding military spending in supposedly civilian projects.

The end result: China got tens of millions of jobs, lots of infrastructure and a first-rate military machine, one that now threatens Taiwan and all of the U.S.' allies in Asia.

President Donald Trump, to his great credit, put China on notice that it needed to behave differently.

Agree with him or not, he rocked China back on its heels with tariffs, expanded U.S. military presence in the Western Pacific, and forged closer strategic ties with Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and even Vietnam, all countries that are worried about China's designs on the region.

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/10/20/is-the-u-s-up-to-chinas-challenge/