Who Pays for China’s Defense Budget? The U.S. Pays!

NINGBO, China (Nov. 29, 2012) Chinese sailors render honors to Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) the Honorable Ray Mabus during a visit to the People’s Liberation Army Navy hospital ship Peace Ark (866). (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Sam Shavers/Released)

At The American Conservative, Pat Buchanan slams globalist politicians, the GOP establishment, and the “New World Order” of George H. W. Bush. Pat laments that the those politicians have thrown open the doors of America to uncontested trade from China, paying for the Middle Kingdom’s military ascendance. He writes (abridged):

The Republican Party of Bush I and II, of Bob Dole and John McCain, is history. It’s not coming back. Unlike the Bourbons after the Revolution and the Terror, after Napoleon and the Empire, no restoration is in the cards.

It is over. The GOP’s policies of recent decades — the New World Order of George H.W. Bush, the crusades for democracy of Bush II — failed, and are seen as having failed. With Trump’s capture of the party they were repudiated.

There will be no turning back.

Europe today is not afraid of Vladimir Putin reaching the Rhine. Europe is afraid of Africa and the Middle East reaching the Danube.

Since Y2K, hundreds of thousands in the Middle East have perished, the ancient Christian community has all but ceased to exist, and the refugees now number in the millions. What are the gains for democracy from these wars, all backed enthusiastically by the Republican establishment?

Why are the people responsible for these wars still being listened to, rather than confessing their sins at second-thoughts conferences?

The GOP elite also played a crucial role in throwing open U.S. markets to China and ceding transnational corporations full freedom to move factories and jobs there and ship their Chinese-made goods back here, free of charge.

Result: In three decades, the U.S. has run up $12 trillion in merchandise trade deficits — $4 trillion with China — and Beijing’s revenue from the USA has more than covered China’s defense budget for most of those years.

For decades, America’s elites failed to see that the transnational moment of the post-Cold War era was passing and an era of rising nationalism and tribalism was at hand.