During the Cold War, most Americans would be alarmed if they discovered their everyday purchases and government-backed retirement funds were financing the Soviet’s military and its strategic initiatives, and even providing employment opportunities. Unfortunately, most policymakers in Washington D.C. and business leaders across the country fail to apply this same logic against the Chinese Communist Party.
The United States and the USSR raced to achieve world dominance for four decades. Much like the CCP today, the USSR denied its citizens fundamental human rights, silenced free speech, dismantled civil society, and crushed any opposition. In Soviet Russia, political dissidents, ethnic and religious minorities, and anyone who disagreed with the government were often sent to labor camps. Quite similarly, the CCP is committing genocide against the Uyghur people, arresting opposition leaders, and controlling every aspect of its citizens’ daily lives. The USSR and the CCP tactics are not that different, and neither is the CCP’s quest to overthrow the United States as a leader on the world stage. The lessons learned from the Cold War need to be modernized to tackle the challenges presented by the looming threat of the CCP.
It is just as absurd today to send our resources, investments, and technology to Communist China as it was to send resources to the USSR during the height of the first Cold War.
You might ask, what is wrong with trade? It has to be good for the U.S. economy, right? In theory, yes, but not when we outsource good-paying jobs, inevitably stimulating the economy of an adversary seeking to neutralize us on the world stage. Every dollar we send to Communist China in time builds a larger and stronger Chinese military, all with resources that should be invested in the American people, economy, and financial infrastructure. The more goods we purchase from Communist China equates to fewer jobs in our communities. While it may be convenient to have cheap goods at just the click of a button, we need to weigh the costs against offshoring our manufacturing and supply chains.
Many failed to realize that the United States invested our agricultural and economic resources in the USSR at the height of the Cold War. The U.S. supplied Soviet Russia with livestock, corn, and wheat, accounting for 60-80% of sales to the USSR for the first half of the 1980s. We fueled their economy, fed their livestock, and empowered an adversary that wished to do us harm.
Now, taxpayer funds at the state and federal levels have invested federal employees’ hard-earned retirement funds into CCP-controlled entities and Chinese Military-Industrial companies. Not only are critical supply chains being outsourced to the detriment of our workforce, but now our retirement funds are directly invested into Communist China’s military.
While your retirement fund is arguably just as important as corn, wheat, and livestock, the principle of investing in an adversary’s economy could not be more foolish. We are feeding the lion that is trying to eat us.
Rep. Leutkemeyer has represented Missouri’s third congressional district since 2013. He is a member of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions.