How the Next President Would Combat an Aggressive China

• China is increasingly positioning itself as America’s most significant 21st-century opponent

• As president, Donald Trump pursued tariffs and other anti-China policies, and has pledged to redouble those efforts

• Kamala Harris has been mostly quiet about what she would do on China

The story

One of the most significant threats to the United States for the remainder of the 21st century will be China. With the second-largest population in the world, the communist dictatorship has been promoting aggressive expansionary policies, at home and abroad.

With China reportedly preparing to conquer Taiwan by 2027, either former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kama Harris will go toe-to-toe with Beijing.

The Biden-Harris White House recently demonstrated weakness when confronting the Chinese threat; when a Chinese spy balloon appeared over the continental US, President Biden waited until it had crossed the entire country before shooting it down.

The current administration also continued Trump’s tariff strategy, going as far as placing a 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles. Tariffs are not only considered by some to be an important economic weapon, but can help stave off foreign influence in America.

On her own, Harris, like much of the rest of her foreign policy, is a bit of a black box when it comes to how she would take on China; one think-tank referred to her China policies as a “blank slate.” Her campaign website mentions China a few times, saying she will ensure that “America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century.”

She has not made any firm policy commitments to inform voters; elsewhere, she speaks against unfair Chinese trade practices, but is silent on how she would specifically combat them. She has, in the past, attacked Trump’s support for tariffs, though President Biden has taken the opposite approach.

Trump’s agenda is clearer, both because he has already served as president and because he has made China one of his top targets in each of his three presidential campaigns.

His campaign site says he will “implement a four-year national reshoring plan” to reduce America’s reliance on Chinese “medical and national security goods;” he also pledges to “ban Chinese ownership of all critical infrastructure in the United States.”

As president, he engaged in a trade war with China, placing tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods. In a second term, Trump would go even further, offering a tariff of up to 60 percent on all Chinese goods.

The politics

In the late 20th and early 21st century, the establishment consensus was that China would democratize with more exposure to Western democracies. That did not happen; if anything, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s rule has been more authoritarian than that of his predecessors.

While Americans are overwhelmingly likely to view China negatively, there are significant party splits in just how negatively they view the country.

One survey found that 59 percent of Republicans or Republican-leaning voters have a very negative opinion of China and label them as an enemy of the US, as opposed to only around 30 percent of Democrats and Democrat-leaners.

China has had success placing spies within the inner circles of major Democratic politicians, like most recently when one was caught working for the New York governor’s office. The Chinese communists evidently see greater openings with Democrats in the US than with Republicans.

The missing context

Many in the media often try to portray Russia as the greatest threat to the United States, but any objective analysis would show that Russia and China are simply not playing on the same level. Russia’s military is significantly weaker, and China spends far more resources on its own and has more men to spare.

Further, Xi Jinping’s goals for China are substantially broader than those of Russia. While Putin has expanded his footprint across Africa and engaged heavily in Syria, it pales in comparison to China’s goals.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative is a worldwide plan to expand Chinese economic dominance across the map, and their recent activity in Africa has been compared to economic colonization.

China’s military aggression in the South China Sea and incursions into India threaten instability across the entirety of Asia. Top Republicans in Washington, and even Republican voters, are more likely to view the Chinese threat as directly threatening to America.

Kamala Harris, when asked recently during an interview, claimed Iran was America’s number one geopolitical adversary. While Iran funds different terrorist groups around the region, the direct threat to America is not comparable to the juggernaut that is communist China.

Why it matters

Domestic issues like the economy, immigration, and crime are the central issues Americans are considering this election — and rightly so. But because the US is the strongest country on earth, its leader plays an enormous role in combatting the enemies that seek to undermine and destroy the West.

There is no country that can challenge the United States like China can, and it is clearly ramping up for a fight. The next president will have to be ready to take China on — and voters should know what they intend to do about the Chinese threat.