Kyle Bell

The United States needs to get serious with China. For all of the talk of “securing the borders” and sending illegal immigrants home, the far more prominent and imminent threat to the American people are China and its goods. The Chinese communist government has no regard for civil liberties or human rights. They consistently rank among the worst in the world. Yet they are one of our top trading partners. Canada remains our closest partner, yet the communists are a close second.

How could this be? Decades ago the United States and the USSR never contemplated trade relations with one another. They preferred their communist economic structure and we preferred to keep them isolated from the West. It was a mutual disregard for one another. Yet post-Cold War, our country has become more and more entangled with another communist regime. Unfortunately, it is driven by corporate titans who seek cheap labor and political leaders who would rather line their pockets than protect the national interest.

The result: millions of American manufacturing jobs lost over decades, crumbling American infrastructure, a burgeoning Chinese military, a weakened U.S. military bogged down in the Middle East, a dollar rapidly declining and cheap Chinese goods infesting our homes and stores. Not only cheap, but also unsafe. Our government’s response? Live with it. This is simply not acceptable. The next president will have to confront this issue head-on. If he does not, we risk forfeiting our position in the world as the only remaining super power.

My solution is simple. We should either do one of two things:

1. Ban all trade with China. This would be the most radical move and would undoubtedly result in economic hardship. Yet given how unfair our current trade policies with China are, it might be in our interest to stop trade and force them to come back to the table.

2. Regulate their goods more thoroughly. The government say they can’t afford it, that they do not have enough inspectors. I have an idea. How about you charge the people who import these goods to pay for the inspections? After 9/11, the government asked us (forced, more accurately) to pay for the airport security with a so-called 9/11 charge. This fee is around $25 and is added to the price of every ticket. If I have to pay a surcharge for an airplane ticket, why don’t multi-billion dollar corporations have to pay a fee for extra security to insure the goods being brought in aren’t harmful? I swear there is no common sense in government these days.