Trump is fighting a historic clash of civilizations against China heres how he could win it
The global economy is finally waking up to the risks from authoritarian economics.As China imposes critical mineral and lithium battery export restrictions on the U.S.
and the world, one must ask: Why did anyone ever trust a mercantilist dictatorship like the Chinese Communist Party to be the world’s main supplier of so many critical goods?To make matters worse, as China limits its critical exports to weaken our defenses, it also floods the world with overproduced cars and heavily subsidized steel, shutting out market-oriented producers.What a racket.Of course, we are not alone.
All market economies are at risk.Multinationals in Europe are urging the EU to address Beijing’s dumping.
As a senior executive at German steelmaker Thyssenkrupp recently put it: “We need protection [or] we are not going to survive as a steel industry.”The Trump administration has responded to Beijing, threatening another tariff blitz, further constraining access to America’s robust consumer economy.Tariffs are today’s response, and a necessary one.But what is the long-term solution? This could be the defining question of Trump’s presidency, as the US decides how to deal with an ascendant China.For decades, China has used coercion, corruption, and monopoly power to dominate global trade.
Today must mark our liberation from Beijing’s grip.First, we need to question the premise that the global economy must be open to all nations, no matter how malignant.Instead of boosting our geopolitical and economic adversaries, we should be shutting them out — building a Near-Global Economy that is reserved for the rule followers and market players.The current reordering of global trade provides a chance, unseen since Bretton Woods in 1944, to build a better global economy that maximizes stability, prosperity, fairness and growth.This requires new alliances, open markets, clear guardrails, and refreshed rules.
More than that, it requires consequences.We must push out rogue nations t...