OPINION:
In 2019, Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House, published a book called “Trump vs. China: Facing America’s Greatest Threat.” One of his main marketing themes for that title was to acknowledge that “We were wrong” — that the early 2000s call from conservatives to welcome China into the World Trade Organization fold did not result in a more capitalist China but rather a more communist-pushing WTO community, leading to more communist influence in the world and even, astonishingly, more tolerance for communists around the world.
That was a mistake of epic proportions for conservatives to make.
Communists are communists are communists, and capitalists are capitalists are capitalists, and never the two will meet.
Now the communists in China are building up their military like there’s no tomorrow. They’re building up their weapons, as well as their psychological warfare operations. And America has just come off four years of “can’t we all just along” White House foreign affairs policy, leading to significant cuts to the U.S. military.
“Biden Shrinks the U.S. Military,” RealClearDefense posted in March of 2024, adding this explainer in a second headline: “The president’s Pentagon budget reveals the armed forces in a state of managed decline.”
In other words: He shrunk it just enough so he could pretend he wasn’t shrinking it.
“Don’t Be Fooled by Biden’s Budget: He’s Cutting Military Spending as our Need Grow,” the New York Post wrote in March of 2023.
Thankfully, President-elect Donald Trump has a better handle on the national security needs of America, to include the threats China brings to the free world, economically, culturally and politically. But his administration can’t come fast enough. President Biden’s can’t leave fast enough.
“China has a sweeping vision to reshape the world,” CNN reported in November of 2023.
The fact Republicans ignored a couple of decades ago and instead, optimistically and naively campaigned for a China that would do the bidding of capitalism, was a perilous misstep that opened the doors for headlines like this, in more modern days: “China’s Grand Plan To Take Over The World” — from Forbes, November of 2019. It led to the World Economic Forum’s open advocacy for what then-WEF chief Klaus Schwab called “stakeholder capitalism” and described as a new model of free markets that blended the China way with the American way — a meeting of communism with capitalism, that pushed for corporations to adopt social policy, not profit, as their primary goal, and that led to U.S. companies walking the woke line. They didn’t call it communism. But it was. It is. You can’t have free markets and state-controlled markets working cohesively and simultaneously. One drives out the other.
The good news is many of America’s corporations are shedding their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion agendas and putting the wokeism back in the closet where it belongs. The bad news is much damage has already been done.
“China expands its economic reach into the United States’ backyard,” East Asia Forum wrote in May of 2023.
The article went on to report, “China has made inroads into South America and the Caribbean, a region where US power once went unchallenged. Starting in the late 1990s, Chinese interest in South America and the Caribbean began to grow.”
In the 1990s.
In the 1990s, when Republicans were selling the idea that communist China just needed a good dose of economic opportunity to lose their communist ways.
Fast-forward to 2023.
“China is the largest trading partner of nine countries in the region: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Cuba, Chile, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela,” East Asia Forum wrote.
Geez, Louise.
Fast-forward to 2024.
“China’s military buildup and cognitive warfare strategy are clear indications of its intent to defeat the U.S. and its allies by any means necessary,” The Federalist wrote on Dec. 27.
Specifics?
As The Federalist noted, China has added 50 new intercontinental ballistic missiles with capabilities of hitting U.S. lands. China has added more than 600 operational nuclear warheads. China has added hundreds of medium- and long-range cruise missiles.
“China’s navy, already the largest in the world with 370 ships and submarines, is expected to grow to 435 by 2030,” The Federalist wrote.
America can barely find qualified shipbuilders, never mind the shipyards where they can build.
This is just a glimpse of China’s growing powers in the fact of America’s waning strength. And sadly, it’s nearly all due to political will. China’s communist leaders have the drive and determination to become the uncontested leader of the world; America’s leaders, minus a few bright spots in the Republican Party — of which Trump is one — have been concessionary, naive, and weak, allowing globalism to dominate agendas rather than sovereign constitutional views. The America First doctrine is soon moving back into White House focus. But it can’t be just for a four-year term.
America First must be the guiding principle of whomever sits in the White House and leads in the political offices of Congress. Less rosy-tinted looks at foreign governments; more steadfast and clearcut agendas that consistently keep the United States as the top dog around the world. Peace through strength. Keep America great.
Communists are America’s enemies.
China is America’s enemy. These are guiding compasses that do not and should not change. We forget them not only at our peril, but at our utter demise.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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