Editor's Note: Chris DeSimone, host of radio talk-show Wake up Tucson, contributed to this column.
Not since World War II has the US sustained a hit to its wealth and wellbeing to the extent currently occurring. We all hope this year’s death toll is many multiples smaller than the 400,000+ from the war, and the economic comparison is as yet hard to correlate. But it’s not too early to say that there are a number of bad actors who perpetrated, exacerbated or exploited this tragedy – and when it’s all over, there should be hell to pay. There’s certainly enough hell being experienced.
The top perp? Of course, the Chi-coms, by at least an order of magnitude. The more we learn, the clearer it becomes that the CCP knew months in advance they had a horror on their hands. But to save face, they hid it. Pandemic researchers estimate earlier notice could have reduced the international spread of this killer by 95%. But instead of coming clean, China even kicked out the US journalists who were accurately reporting on the COVID-19 virus. China must pay and pay big. More on that in a moment.
Next level of nefariousness, the domestic Left, in office and in the press. And it’s becoming harder to see where one ends and the other begins, as the malign media is the marketing arm of the Left and elective Dems are the legislative arm of the media. When President Trump enacted a travel ban on China back in January, this unholy chorus condemned him as racist and worse. They even tried to title this tragedy as “the Trump virus,” despite its crystal clear origins in Wuhan China. It’s now obvious that Trump could not have made a better move than placing that ban, which saved uncountable US lives. There’s no way of knowing how much worse things would be if the malignant media ran policy. They’ve incessantly downplayed China’s culpability while vilifying Trump.
Now, the positives, starting with payback: first, charge China for financial losses. Debt owed them can be repudiated by each country calculating costs incurred by COVID, both national and personal. For years, China has been loansharking to dozens of countries by offering infrastructure built on credit through their Belt and Road Initiative. Stop making payments and instead send ‘em a bill. On many levels, they’re now seen to be the worst enemy of a prosperous and stable world. And the US, with Trump hopefully at the helm for five more years, is the main entity to thwart the ambitions of that counterfeit “People’s Republic.”
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Second, scale back our purchasing of Chinese products, especially pharmaceuticals. Getting a majority of our meds from them is insane and the fact that we do should scare the hell out of us. But we have an ideal trading partner which is already a capable med manufacturer: Mexico. The benefits of going south for that stuff can’t be overstated. Hitting a trifecta, we’ll have increased security, China will lose a major source of military funding, and Mexico will have a higher level of stability which comes from increased wealth. Better to manufacture in Juarez than Wuhan. A more prosperous Mexico means fewer illegal border crossings with a concurrent reduction in that source of funding for the criminal cartels. And how about electronics? Why can't Apple make iPhones in Mexico instead of China? If US labor is too high, Mexico is a great alternative. Perhaps we could issue fewer of those job-stealing H-1B visas by having a bigger source of production right next door. Our supply chain, a subject getting increased attention of late, would benefit from eliminating some pacific shipping and the delays of coming through California ports.
More manufacturing in India, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore would be another plus. At least they’re allies. Trump was better received in India than he is by the Dems in Congress. Tens of millions in that subcontinent would love to have jobs or better ones.
Third, we should resurrect our strategic mineral mining. What are known as rare earth elements are not really rare, and they’re necessary for many areas of high-tech manufacturing, including military. It’s nuts that China, our top geopolitical rival, controls a huge portion of world production. Trump’s much-maligned tariffs on Chinese goods, installed to protect and preserve our industries, is looking increasingly prescient. Our reduction in mining (and logging, for that matter) came because despite having these resources here in abundance, the so-called “environmentalists” – AKA Gang-Green – work to thwart our crucial access to them, as they do for other natural resources, with incessant lawsuits and various other forms of agitation. Trump should use his increasingly useful emergency procurement authority to end that multi-level stranglehold once and for all.
Until China becomes an accountable member of the world community, we must stop financing them, like Reagan did with the USSR. Their economy is weaker than they project and, as we’re learning with their COVID-19 reporting, nothing they say or do can be trusted. They even turned around a cargo ship laden with gloves and masks bought by and destined for New York hospitals.
Another possible positive: increased recognition and international standing for Taiwan, which has gotten undeserved short shrift on the world stage second only to Israel. They’re a genuine ally and a beacon of freedom and deserve to be treated accordingly. If Kuwait was a sovereign nation, despite Saddam Hussein’s claims, the same rules should apply to Taiwan.
And last, voters ought to have long memories of the Dems using thousands of deaths and untold misery to push not just useless but detrimental pork. Vote ‘em out this fall and may the 2021 turn-around be the best one yet!
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