Most public discourse in our country lately has been about domestic politics, but it’s also important to keep engaged with what’s going on elsewhere in the world. I believe the most important global issue today is the rise of China as an economic and military power. Our country and others engage in a great deal of trade and cultural interaction with China, and at one time many (including myself) hoped that would eventually lead to more freedom for the Chinese people. Unfortunately, the opposite has happened. Unlike the Soviet Union, which collapsed because its authoritarian system could not produce economic growth, China has come up with a system that has provided economic progress for many of its people, while simultaneously cracking down ever harder against any political dissent.
China has now begun to colonize countries elsewhere in the world by making deals with dictators that ally with them. As an example, the regime of Chinese ally Eritrea is so horribly oppressive it has been nicknamed the “North Korea of Africa.”
