Indulge me a quick personal story. Twice now, I’ve been duped by Facebook ads into ordering American-looking products (furniture polish and a blouse) that I later discovered came from China.
The packages arrived months late with return addresses written in Chinese that were indecipherable and unreturnable. The blouse was doll-sized with two different sleeve lengths. Instead of furniture polish, the crushed, toothpaste-sized box I received contained spackling compound with a pointed applicator.
I’m annoyed with Facebook for failing to disclose where their advertised products come from. I am angrier with the Chinese manufacturers who tricked me—twice. Shame on me if I fall for that again.
This lesson strikes me as a metaphor for the long-standing relationship between the United States and China. Time after time, the Chinese have taken advantage, deceived, and outright stolen from us. Our government response has been wishy-washy.
Chinese duplicity goes way back. Foreign policy experts figure that the Chinese theft of intellectual property from Americans costs the United States between $225 billion to $600 billion a year. The Chinese have long hacked into U.S. computers, stolen software and trade secrets, and illegally infringed on patents. For years, they have counterfeited American goods and sold them around the world—including right here in the United States. If a U.S. citizen had employed similar tactics, he or she would have risked a long prison term.
The Chinese have also long practiced unfair trade tactics by forcing their grossly underpaid citizens to produce products that other countries could never duplicate without resorting to slave labor. They have slapped exorbitant tariffs on U.S. goods headed into China, thus putting a chokehold on American companies hoping to tap into the massive Chinese market.
Now, there’s COVID-19.
It is clear we have allowed our country to become overly reliant on Chinese goods and services, and the very health of America is at stake.
Realize that China controls production of a massive amount of the world’s medicines, medicinal compounds, and medical supplies and equipment. For example, 90 percent of our antibiotics, vitamin C, ibuprofen, and hydrocortisone is manufactured in China. About 70 percent of acetaminophen and about 45 percent of the blood thinner heparin come from China. About half of the safety masks made in the world come from China.
If we push the regime too hard on their hacking of U.S. trade secrets, if we harshly question them on their illogically low COVID-19 death rate or condemn them for currently hoarding face masks, we risk the possibility of serious Chinese retribution.
What if China, in a fit of parochial pique, decides to send us shoddy pharmaceuticals or medical equipment—or none at all?
There was a glimmer of hope that relations might begin to even out last fall when President Donald Trump optimistically told American farmers to buy more tractors and land because China had agreed to spend $40 billion a year on American agriculture products. However, recent estimates from Washington report China is not on track to buy that much. The current total of agriculture sales to Beijing is more like $14 billion. Duped again?
In this globalized economy, we cannot afford to write off relations with China. But I’ve learned my lesson. No more ordering from Facebook ads lest they be from a Chinese company. And I will try my best to buy nothing marked “made in China.”
China is not our friend. They unapologetically operate by a completely different standard of conduct. The fact that we have allowed ourselves to become so subservient to them—in business, in technology, in medicine—and allowed so many U.S. manufacturing jobs to ebb away to China, is maddening.
We are paying for it now. We will continue to pay for it in the future unless drastic changes are made.
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