For beginners, China is a thief, the equivalent of someone stealing something worth more than $4,000 from every four-person household in America every year, a total of $500 billion. What gets swiped is our intellectual property, the discoveries and inventions of our exceptional technologists. China also cheats the United States and lots of the rest of the world, too, by ignoring trade agreements that put fairness above infamy.
The director of the play, the Chinese Communist Party, a heartless, dictatorial, endlessly ambitious regime, does not stop with money. It is also a genocidal freak, wiping out Muslims to make China’s population of 1.4 billion less diverse. It is bullying its neighbors with no regard for international law. It has indulged in cyberattacks on the United States and is viciously stripping Hong Kong of freedom, independence and rule of law.
The island of Taiwan could be next. Once a cheerleader for President Donald Trump because he so often stood by the bold if tiny, democratic, economically thriving ally wanting to maintain its independence. A nuclear power, mainland China lies just 110 miles across the Taiwan Strait.
But wait. Fear of a timid Biden administration has disappeared. President Joe Biden wants a stronger Taiwan trade agreement, a significant signal that he also stands by these Chinese people.
