America urgently needs and fortunately has a top leader who thrives on addressing enormously complex and consequential challenges at a time of combined military and economic threats from our four most dangerous adversaries.
Amidst looming prospects of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan triggering World War III, we witness Beijing scaling up its naval and nuclear capabilities, a near-nuclearized Iran along with Russia selling them oil, and Iran and North Korea, in turn, providing Russia with drones used against our ally Ukraine paid for in part by Chinese trade tariffs on merchandise we purchase from them.
Meanwhile, China has been ripping us off with intellectual property theft, controlling our supply line for pharmaceuticals, sending deadly fentanyl across our border with Mexico, subsidizing electric vehicles and other products that compete with our markets, purchasing U.S. farmland for spying on security-sensitive facilities, and reverse-engineering some of our most advanced military equipment.
According to Chinese media reports, China’s stealthy new “next generation” J-35 fighter jet designed for launch from an aircraft carrier appears very similar in fuselage and external configuration to the U.S. Air Force 5-35 Lightning.
This similarity is likely no coincidence.
A source at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research told The Epoch Times that China’s main fighter jets from the J-11 to J-16 series are mostly imitations and reverse engineering of Russian Su-27 and Su-30 aircraft with few original parts because building aircraft from start to finish isn’t easy for their current industry.
This is all occurring as Beijing dramatically scales up its control of global commercial shipping and seaports along with heavily subsidized shipbuilding capabilities that dwarf ours.
By comparison, the U.S. which doesn’t subsidize commercial shipbuilders, has lost 300 shipyards between 1983 and 2013, with only 20 capable of producing oceangoing vessels, and most of these exclusively for the U.S. Navy.
According to the Congressional Record Service, China is projected to have 435 warships by 2030, outnumbering the U.S. fleet by more than one-third.
The comparative U.S. shipping trade market is shrinking as well.
Whereas the U.S. had a commercial fleet of more than 5,000 ships at the end of World War II constituting 40% of the world’s total, only about 90 ships involved in international trade sail under U.S. flags today.
Taken altogether, President Xi’s central role and circumstances in all of this make for delicate yet decisive strategic negotiations.
Given that a weakening China economy has put Xi on shakier ground with his popular citizen and military support, it also risks prompting military actions against Taiwan.
China has already been testing the waters for just such a strike force action.
Last October, according to Taiwan’s defense ministry, a record 125 military aircraft, including jet fighters, helicopters and drones, took part in a large-scale simulated air-and-sea blockade of the island.
According to our Pentagon, China’s air force currently has about 1,900 jet fighters and 500 bombers, along with more than 3,000 missiles capable of reaching Taiwan.
December exercises deployed more than 90 Chinese military ships and coast guard vessels accompanied by several thousand personnel in waters surrounding Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.
While China’s aircraft carriers are reportedly less capable than America’s, they are working to catch up after adding one in 2019 and are expected to launch another this year.
Let’s remember that dictatorships often resort to war specifically to overcome domestic crises and that China’s current economic circumstances are far from rosy with much credit to this military spending set for $255 billion for the 2025 fiscal year … second to the U.S. at $850 billion.
As reported by Bloomberg, previous U.S. tariffs imposed on China as of early April were already predicted to cause a 2.4% GDP decline this year.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China reports that its economy is experiencing deflation that puts it on track for the longest period of economy-wide price declines since the 1960s due to collapse of the property sector which would be compounded by even a modest trade war with the United States.
So, on one hand, starving China’s economy with tariffs to the point of destabilization can potentially drive the Xi regime to desperate actions against Taiwan and neighboring South China Sea allies which inevitably draw America into a war neither side wants.
On the other hand, continuing to help finance Chinese military spending and Russia, Iran and North Korea proxy wars by tolerating unfair business practices and trade imbalances isn’t an acceptable option either.
America’s only real option is peace through strength.
Peace for them by offering them access to an enormous market for their products so long as they behave, stop stealing from us, and end military provocations against our sacred homeland and allies.
Strength by not having to depend on their imports for items and materials we can produce at home that open American industries, employ and reward our own people, enrich our economy, and yes, empower our defenses against those who would do us harm.
Demonstrating firm willingness to exercise that strength through a trade war weaponized with tariffs now may afford the only effective deterrence against a far deadlier and more destructive one with nuclear bombs later.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 12 books is "Architectures Beyond Boxes and Boundaries: My Life By Design" (2022). Read Larry Bell's Reports — More Here.
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