A new poll from Convention of States Action and Trafalgar shows that Americans oppose corporations working with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to censor protests in China. In a rare result, large majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and Independent voters appear to agree about companies that work with the CCP in this way. Overall, more than three-quarters of voters say they are less likely to do business with a company that does this.
“As we saw with Apple’s recent move to help the Chinese government silence protesters in China, more and more Americans are becoming aware of how Big Tech is complicit in helping governments infringe on the rights of citizens,” said Mark Meckler, President of the Convention of States. “When these major companies are publicly announcing boycotts against American states with policy or legislation they disagree with, while aiding and abetting countries committing human rights violations, Americans are right to start walking away with their wallets.”
While the results of this poll should have political implications for domestic and foreign policy, that only happens if the will of the electorate is taken seriously. The Biden administration’s energy policy demonstrates that is not the case. And unlike the energy policy, which could change quickly, our entanglements with CCP are decades in the making.
Since President Nixon visited Beijing the year I was born, up until President George W. Bush endorsed China entering the World Trade Organization, the only thing that really mattered was the size of China’s market potential. Now all that matters is the extensive investments Wall Street and corporate America have made there over the last three decades. Unless you have taken stock, you might be shocked to discover how much of your 401K or pension relies on the success of China’s economy.
The United States and the West made a show of evaluating China’s human rights record until 1994, when President Bill Clinton “de-linked” China’s most favored nation trade status from its human rights record. For anyone keeping track, that was a mere five years after the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Clinton acknowledged the CCP’s continued brutality, but “broader American strategic interests” justified the policy change.
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In 1999, The People’s Liberation Army published Unrestricted Warfare, which details the non-military tactics China could undertake to replace the United States as a global hegemon. Some scholars say China has no “grand plan” to accomplish this. Others see the fentanyl pouring over our border and killing our children and the complete capture of fundamental industries like textiles and pharmaceuticals as more than a coincidence.
In short, by the beginning of this century, someone should have been questioning precisely how China fits into America’s “strategic interests.” Yet no one, Democrat or Republican, did. Instead of raising the standard of living and increasing market demand in our own hemisphere or concentrating on Southeast Asia and countries like India, tons of capital flowed into China.
While the elite profited and the CCP ripped off technology developed in the United States for its own gain, communism started to invade South America. Meanwhile, Mexico and Central America essentially became failed states run by narco-terrorists. Those international gangs now run our southern border, which President Biden refuses to close or secure in any meaningful way. All while China’s Belt and Road initiative continues to march north from Venezuela.
Worse, our global elites are making no secret of their admiration for the CCP. President Biden is not sure liberal democracies will prove to have greater utility than autocracies. In March of 2021, he said, “We’ve got to prove democracy works.” We proved America’s third way, a constitutional republic, was superior to communism and fascism following WWII and culminating in the break up of the Soviet Union. Then we gave away the farm.
Biden’s energy policies seek to make us dependent on China, where most of the raw materials and equipment for wind and solar are processed and produced. Oh, and the batteries for all of those electric vehicles you will be forced to buy. It is unclear how this will assist us in making a case for the liberal democracies of the West or make the globe any cleaner. China makes all those products in plants powered by coal, oil, and natural gas.
Biden is not alone. Wannabe Bond villain and World Economic Forum Chairman Klaus Schwab recently said he admired China’s achievements in modernizing its economy since the 1980s. “I think it’s a role model for many countries,” he said, quickly adding, “I think we should be very careful in imposing systems. But the Chinese model is certainly a very attractive model for quite a number of countries.”
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The WEF’s continued push for global health certificates and central bank digital currencies is just a shortcut to China’s social credit system. This should make CCP fanboy and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau very happy. It will make it much easier for him to confiscate the wealth of people who disagree with him politically, like the Canadian truckers.
The poll is encouraging, as it seems at least three-fourths of America still believes in free speech and the right to protest. However, the path to extricating ourselves from enriching the CCP by buying the products produced there is a long and expensive one. To date, America has not even prohibited CCP-aligned individuals and organizations from buying up land and assets related to national security inside our borders because they have leverage. For example, the CCP could easily say if the U.S. stops land sales, it won’t ship chemotherapy.
Are you willing to punish companies that continue to manufacture and do business in China when there are alternatives made in America that embrace our core values? Are you ready to delete Facebook and join Minds? Are you going to ignore the screams as you take Tik Tok off your kids’ phones and put them on Rumble? Will your budget accommodate buying clothing from Grip6 and American Giant? Can you give up your favorite lipstick and peruse the shades on American Beauty? How about dropping your current payment system and using Align Pay?
If we believe, as the poll indicates, that individual freedom matters, we have to start building and supporting the parallel economy while increasing manufacturing capacity immediately. To quote a Democrat, getting serious about onshoring and rebuilding our supply chains would serve “broader American strategic interests.”
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