The growing problem with China may well become insurmountable by the end of this decade, if something isn't done about it. Like most problems, playing ostrich will only make things worse in the long run. The time to begin dealing with China is right now.
China has been acquiring a great deal of military equipment from their new partner, Russia. In fact, joint Chinese-Russian military exercises are scheduled for this year. China has also made alliance with North Korea, supplying them with 70% of their energy and 40% of their food. The two countries have conducted joint border patrols. Both military partnerships translate into an exchange of knowledge and technology. China supplies money, food and technology to North Korea, and North Korea supplies weapons and nuclear technology to Iran. "We know there is cooperation between North Korea and Iran in the nuclear field. The Iranians have a very comprehensive military nuclear program, and North Korea has been crucial in that," said Yossef Bodansky, director of the US Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare. Iran funds and supplies al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, and is about to use the knowledge acquired from North Korea to become a nuclear power.
China has been expanding its influence elsewhere in the world. They have been making heavy investments in the Caribbean, giving money and promising heavy tourist trade in exchange for economic ties. Their aim is to woo those nations away from their rival, Taiwan. "Two weeks before Dominica changed sides," the Associate Press reported, "Taiwan gave it $9 million. China promised Dominica $112 million over the next six years." For the first time ever, a Communist military deployment took place in the Western hemisphere, when China dispatched 95 "police officers" to join the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti.
More than 3,000 companies in the US are suspected of collecting technological information for China. In the Silicon Valley alone, the number of Chinese espionage cases handled by the FBI increases by between 20% and 30% every year. Chinese operatives are buying American technology and sending it to China at an alarming rate. How is this buying spree, military deployments and support for rogue nations financed?
Right now, China is experiencing an economic boom that has caused them to overtake the US as the world's largest consumer nation. Their voracious consumption of oil is a major factor in rising oil prices. Meanwhile, they sell their manufactured goods around the world at a fraction of the price similar domestically-manufactured items would cost. The Chinese government has used the proceeds from this boom not to make life better for their people, but to buy up the US debts owed to other countries. If they ever call it in at once while raising their export prices, China could conceivably bankrupt the US. So how can the Chinese afford to take over our debt, and charge us so little for their manufactured goods that they can outsell us on our own soil? Where is China getting all this wealth with which to buy influence and allies around the world?
To be blunt, they're getting it from us.
The Chinese learned their lesson from watching the implosion of the Soviet Union's insular economy. They have also seen how a closed economy has caused North Korea to become dependent on foreign aid, while their only exports are illegal weapons and nuclear knowledge. Over the last decade or so, China's government has taken several steps to open their economy to world trade while continuing to keep their people under totalitarian rule. They can manufacture their sale goods more cheaply than we ever could, since they have access to a nearly unlimited supply of virtual slave labor.
In the early 1990s, China became "the single largest source of imported footwear in the United States market," according to Nicholas R. Lardy of the Institute for International Economics. During his testimony before the House Committee on International Relations in October 2003, Lardy stated, "Firms located in China are now the second largest supplier of imports to the United States." China also became our largest source of toys and sporting goods during the 1990s, and became our largest supplier of consumer electronics and computer technology in 2002.
When you buy anything made in China, it was very likely assembled, grown or built in a laogai, or forced labor camp -- brutal places that combine all the worst features of Soviet gulags and Nazi death camps. According to the Laogai Research Foundation, "The two major aims of the laogai are to use all prisoners as a source of cheap labor for the communist regime and to 'reform criminals' through hard labor and compulsory political indoctrination."
Harry Wu, who spent 19 years in laogai, described the harsh conditions of these prisons. "At first I worked in a chemical factory in Beijing. We would work from 12 p.m. till a.m. in a straight shift. There was no protection for the slave laborers. We got burns on our skin, and many people were injured." The Chinese simply found a way to make the old Soviet gulag system turn a profit, but at a severe human cost. "All of the slave laborers became animals. You can take the very best men in the world, and if you put them in the laogai, after a time they will all become beasts," lamented Wu.
Now, our government has to "play nice" with China. They need China to deal with their North Korean ally, Kim Jong Il. The Bush administration hopes that capitalism will lead to greater freedom in China. However, we the consumers are under no such restrictions, and few of us are so hopeful about democratic reforms taking place without pressure. Luckily, we do have the power to choose what we buy. If enough Americans are willing to spend a few extra dollars to avoid items made by slave labor in Chinese work camps, we can avoid helping a brutal Communist dictatorship that funds and aids our enemies.
Many Americans say they'd like to help win the war on terror. One thing we can do is stop funding it.
