The Global Threat to U.S. Hegemony

By Professor Nicholas Giordano

Professor Nicholas Giordano

If the last month has proved anything, it should be the threat that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) poses to the global community. For decades, American administrations, except for the Trump administration, have placated China. They acquiesced out of fear that we will lose access to cheap goods and the potential 1.3-billion-person marketplace. It is due to this benign approach that many of us are on lockdowns, and the U.S. economy, as well as the global economy, are in shambles.

Over the course of the last 30 years, the Communist government of China has been working on their grand strategy to become the dominant superpower by 2049. They grew their economy and increased stability to maintain their authoritarian rule. They continued, unencumbered, to build their national military strength. Now they are ready for the last two major goals. The first being to weaken Taiwan’s international standing that will allow China to recapture Taiwan. The second is far more detrimental, and that’s to replace the U.S. world order.

While China has been working on multiple fronts to achieve these objectives, they faced little pushback from the U.S. and the global community. We willingly underestimated China’s capabilities. America was afraid to use the full weight of our power and strength to ensure countries are playing by our rules. After all, we are the benign superpower. In fact, our policymakers and the corporate elite were fearful of calling out the CCP because they worried China would cut off access to their markets. Just look at the pathetic attempt by the NBA, and athletes like Lebron James, who bowed down to China after the GM of the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey, dared to criticize the CCP’s hardline approach in Hong Kong. Failures like these embolden the CCP and continue the perception that the U.S. is weak and feckless.

China continually thumbs its nose at the international order, and their strategies to acquire power are extraordinarily sophisticated. China weaponized their currency and the economy by continuing to devalue the Yuan and increase trade deficits throughout the world. They want the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to replace the World Bank, where the United States has the largest voting share. All in an effort to replace the dollar as the world’s currency.

They have a coordinated corporate espionage and intellectual property theft on a massive scale. They force companies to sign partnership agreements if they want access to China’s marketplaces. This has cost the United States trillions of dollars over the last 20 years. They routinely conduct cyber intrusions, penetrating our critical infrastructure and key resources in an effort to exploit vulnerabilities. They infiltrated college campuses throughout the country to cultivate the next generation of American engineers and scientists to be assets for future intelligence endeavors. They set up Confucius Institutes to immerse Americans in “Chinese culture and history” when it is really nothing more than a propaganda machine designed to influence students to the CCP.

Perhaps, the most dangerous of all is China’s Belt and Road Initiative. A number of countries are desperate for money, and the CCP has laid out debt traps throughout the world. China entices these countries with a money supply, particularly for large critical infrastructure projects. The stipulations of the loan are that a Chinese company must be hired to run the project. The people of the country are employed for the menial labor, but Chinese labor is brought in to actually operate the facilities. If a country is unable to pay back the loan, the CCP then owns the infrastructure facility. If a foreign country controls your airports, electricity plants, port system, water supply plants, etc. do you have sovereignty or are you held hostage by the CCP? Quite genius if you think about it.

The U.S. needs to wake-up. The lies and deception have cost tens of thousands of lives, and have plunged our economy, and the global economy, into a recession, perhaps even a depression. It is time countries join together and hold the CCP accountable. It is time we bring critical manufacturing sectors back to the U.S. It is time to reduce our dependency on China. It is time we lead the world again and take our power back.

Nicholas Giordano is Professor of Political Science at Suffolk Community College and host of The P.A.S. Report Podcast