OPINION:
The most important national security question facing the United States at the moment and probably for the next few decades is what should be done about China. Given the importance of the issue, it would be helpful if President Biden could decide which side he favors in this contest.
A month ago, he correctly identified China’s communist strongman, Xi Jinping, as a dictator. Despite that, he continues to press for policies that subsidize electric vehicles and would eventually outlaw the sale of gasoline-powered automobiles.
Such an approach will increase and make permanent American dependence on China, in large measure, because the communist regime in Beijing owns, controls or processes about 80% of the critical minerals necessary for batteries and other components of electric vehicles.
For purposes of comparison, at the height of our dependence on imported oil, we depended on the Middle East (and the comparatively friendly Saudi regime) for about 20% of our oil.
One of the most important (and rare) minerals needed for the construction of the batteries with which Mr. Biden wants to power his brave new world is cobalt. Cobalt is essential to small batteries in cellphones and large utility-scale batteries, and, of course, batteries that power electric vehicles.
The problem is that most of the cobalt in the world is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, mostly by families, including children.
According to Siddharth Kara, an adjunct lecturer at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, a family of five can mine enough cobalt in a week for one electric vehicle, typically by wading in a pool of toxic liquid that includes the presence of heavy metals.
For that, the parents and their children earn about $15.
Chinese companies own and operate almost all of these mines. It will come as no surprise that American companies — Apple, Google, Tesla — are participants in this particular supply chain. No word on whether being adjacent to slavery and child labor has affected the environmental, social and governance scores of those companies.
The Biden administration knows all of this.
So does Rep. Chris Smith, the New Jersey Republican who last week introduced legislation to bar imports that contain cobalt mined by children and slaves in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mr. Smith said: “The United States must stop aiding and abetting Communist China’s egregious exploitation of children — some as young as 6 years old — and start becoming less dependent on Xi Jinping’s brutal dictatorship.”
Mr. Smith also authored the China Trade Relations Act, which would require China to restrain its genocidal and slaving impulses to retain normal trade relations with the United States.
In the last century of the Roman Republic, the great Roman statesman (and veteran of the Second Punic War) Cato the Elder would add at the end of every speech, irrespective of the topic: “Carthago delenda est,” which is, loosely translated, “Carthage must be destroyed.”
He understood that Rome and Carthage could not and would not both be preeminent.
We face the same moment and, consequently, require the same kind of clarity. Mr. Biden needs to decide who he believes should win our contest with the murderous communist regime in Beijing. And then act accordingly.
While we are waiting for that, Mr. Smith’s legislation deserves a swift and affirmative vote in the House of Representatives.
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