Originally posted on October 21, 2019.
John Burtka writes at The Washington Post (abridged):
The United States is at a crossroads.
We live in a country where the titans of industry have betrayed the national interest in search of profits from a communist dictatorship.
Companies that have prospered on account of the United States’ political and economic freedom, infrastructure, and military protection, now limit the speech of Americans and others seeking freedom to appease their minders and masters in Beijing. The consequence of this? The abolition of national sovereignty, individual liberty and the consent of the governed.
It’s long past time to render a value on the United States’ 40-year relationship with the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
What result of it has come to the American heartland besides an opioid epidemic, rising suicide rates, the destruction of the world’s greatest manufacturing base, low-wage service jobs, and the big-box stores that have killed the American main street? Not to mention the hundreds of billions of dollars lost to stolen technology, the dumping of excess product in markets to destroy U.S. industries, as well as egregious human rights abuses.
No matter how the trade talks turn out, the sun is setting on the United States’ trade relationship with China.
It’s time we take significant economic measures to repatriate manufacturing supply chains to the Americas and establish a trading block that spans from Alaska to Argentina. In doing so, we’ll create an economic boom in Latin America, ameliorate tensions at the border with Mexico, and restore dignity to the United States’ middle and working classes.
John A. Burtka IV is executive director of The American Conservative.
Read more here.
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