Can the U.S. counter China’s growing power?

While commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with an ostentatious military parade in Beijing earlier this month, Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping was choreographing the dance of the world’s most anti-American leaders. Also, it is not clear if it is the Communist party that should celebrate as the Chinese Nationalist government was the main force fighting the Japanese forces. In the civil war that followed Japan’s surrender, the government was defeated and escaped to Taiwan. Standing with Mr. Xi were Russian ruler Vladimir Putin, North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, an axis China is exploiting to boost its global influence in confrontation with the U.S. and its allies.

Overseeing his troops goose-stepping toward Tiananmen Square, Mr. Xi spewed anti-U.S. propaganda about taking a stand against hegemonism and power politics when, in fact, he is responsible for spawning this century’s Cold War. Beijing is militarizing the South China Sea while infringing on the economic rights of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Taiwan, conducting massive hacking operations including into the Office of Personnel Management to steal U.S. government employee data, counterfeiting Western products and stealing trade secrets through espionage and by requiring foreign companies to reveal technology secrets with Chinese companies in return for market access, using its “One Belt, One Road” initiative as cover for debt trap diplomacy, and mounting sophisticated cyberespionage attacks on U.S. data and intellectual property. Chinese theft of intellectual property costs the U.S. economy billions of dollars each year.

China has long claimed Taiwan to be its breakaway province to be reunited by force, if necessary, despite having never ruled it. Illegally annexing Taiwan would extend China’s reach into the East China Sea, threaten Japan and Guam, and enable China to subsume Taiwan’s high-tech industry, including its world-class semiconductor factories. It is also a continuation of the civil war, a conflict between communist, oppression and dictatorship versus democracy, freedom and plurality. Closely allied with Cuba and Venezuela, China is also actively encroaching on U.S. commercial and national security interests in the Western Hemisphere.

At the turn of the century, China joined the World Trade Organization and then proceeded to break all the rules governing international trade. While blocking imports, China flooded overseas markets, especially in the U.S. and Western Europe, with comparatively cheaper goods. Implementing its state-run communist economic model, China spends hundreds of billions of dollars on industrial subsidies that have threatened the European Union’s clean energy strategy. This is especially true for solar panels, where China controls 80% of the world’s manufacturing capacity, and global electric vehicle sales, for which China has built a 60% share. That’s why Europe suffers a $500 billion trade deficit with China.

Violating internationally recognized standards for labor and preventing its population from enjoying the standards of living that should be commensurate with its rising gross domestic product, China artificially drives down prices to gain overwhelming control over rare earth and critical mineral processing and other key markets.

The Middle East trades more with China than the U.S. China established its first overseas base in Djibouti and negotiated strategic partnerships with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait. Chinese companies in Oman, which has a free trade agreement with the U.S., flood the U.S. market with re-exports of high technology while evading U.S. tariffs and scrutiny.

Nothing is more important for U.S. national security than a comprehensive strategy to defend, deter and counter Mr. Xi’s aggressive plan to build a new world order. China’s coercive diplomacy, unfair trade practices and military aggression threaten a multitude of nations for which China’s state-sponsored tyranny is anathema. Our allies and partners can be powerful force multipliers so that the U.S. conducts its China policy more effectively and, especially with respect to our financial and military resources, efficiently.

Xi wants China’s adversaries to be weak and divided because he knows that together they are stronger and better equipped to protect internationally recognized borders, freedom of navigation, and the free exchange of goods and services on which the U.S. and global economies rely. If there’s a silver lining for what too often appears to be hopelessly divided American politics, it’s that Democrats and Republicans should find common ground on promoting U.S. global leadership rather than suffer the consequences of Chinese hegemony.

The U.S. cancelled the F-22 in 2010 after only building 187 airframes. The claim was that China would be unable to build stealth fighters for 20 years. China now has reached a 300 strong J-20 stealth fighter force. The J-20 is the F-22 equivalent. It can carry internally 6 long range air to air missiles. Every year 100 J-20s are being produced. The U.S. needs to become more aggressive against the Chinese, but there are limitations. To start with, the U.S. owes approximately $759 billion to China and has to pay significant interest payments to China, China is still a major trading partner of the U.S. and the U.S. is dependent on rare earth metals from China. China is a nasty, unreliable and corrupt country, but reality is that the U.S. over time has made themselves dependent on China so there are limitations how hard they can hit back and how aggressive the U.S. tariffs can be. The Chinese seems to have the winning hand.