General Secretary and Chinese President Xi Jinping waves as he leaves after speaking at a press event with members of the new Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China and Chinese and foreign journalists at The Great Hall of People on October 23, 2022 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer | Getty Images)
Since the end of World War II, our politicians have found it advantageous to always have some other nation or collection of nations to pose as an overwhelming threat to the United States. They use it to “unite” us against “the other” – whomever that may be.
But the negatives to such a stupid and short-sighted approach to co-existence on the only planet we have are now far outpacing the dubious advantages and are negatively impacting our nation, our people, and our chances for a livable future.
Ironically, our once-enemies, the Germans and Japanese, are now our allies. And the Russians, our once-allies in WWII, are now our enemies. But Russia’s threat to the U.S. is so diminished we now have to find someone else to hate, fear and claim as, in the recent words of Montana’s Senator Jon Tester, “our foreign adversaries.”
Certainly when it comes to defining “adversaries” those same politicians have no problems dragging hypothetical threats from thin air. Thus, our great adversary for the unachievable goal of “global domination,” is now determined to be China.
How, one might wonder, can China be an adversary when virtually everything you can buy has “Made in China” stamped on it? It’s so ridiculous it would be laughable, were the consequences not so dire – and they are.
The Biden administration, marching in lockstep with its predecessor Donald Trump, is now slapping outlandish tariffs and outright bans on Chinese products. Not, mind you, on all the products that flood the shelves of every store, but on products that would provide a better future for Americans and the planet.
Most recently, those “tariff targets” include solar panels and electric cars, both of which are being produced in China at prices far below what’s available from domestic producers. The old saying “don’t cut off your nose to spite your face” seems particularly applicable on these two items.
First, and perhaps most importantly, the primary way to break our addiction to fossil fuels and slow the quickening march to climate catastrophe is by replacing those fuels with clean electric energy. As anyone who has solar panels will tell you, once installed they produce maintenance-free electricity for decades. Improvements in solar panel technology are making huge leaps and show even more promise for clean, affordable energy for the future.
Yet, hiding behind the election-year ploy of “protecting domestic manufacturers,” the imposition of such tariffs tremendously slow the implementation of clean energy production for our people.
In simplest terms, this protectionism is far from the supposed free-market system our politicians love to hail as the solution to all our problems. Nor do our utility corporations want to see any competition from rooftop solar panels to their control of production, pricing and profits on their centrally-generated electricity.
Then there are the Chinese electric cars that would sell for about $12,000 in the U.S. without the outrageous import tariffs. Compare that with a Tesla, which cost four to ten times as much. If our politicians really wanted to help American families deal with the crippling costs of inflation, being able to purchase an affordable, reliable electric car should be their top priority, not their top target.
These are just two examples our ridiculous trade policies that hurt, not help, our people and the efforts to combat climate catastrophe. There are too many for any one column, but it seems abundantly clear that positing China as an adversary is a foolish, losing proposition. The real mystery is why our vote-seeking politicians won’t acknowledge the harm they are actually doing as they blather on about jobs and hide behind the curtain of “national security” — particularly when their actions make us less, not more, secure.
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