To put it bluntly, Communist China has been a terrible place for a very long time, and the globalists were fully aware of it. What's changing is that it will be harder for them to make the people of the Western world to ignore how terrible the CCP is. Harder, but not impossible.
The theory that economic engagement would "liberalize" the brutal Communist regime in Beijing was exposed as nonsense long ago. The regime got WORSE as globalism made it rich... and the rest of the world got worse too. The CCP exerts FAR more influence on us than we do on them.
If there's one thing the Wuhan virus nightmare should make inescapably clear, it's that globalism has given the CCP enormous influence over U.S. media, politics, and corporations. We have, in turn, gained no real influence over them at all.
Defending globalism by lauding the cheap goods it provides to Western consumers is a sick joke after the coronavirus. We just found out how expensive those "cheap goods" really are.
Media keeps talking about the Wuhan virus wiping out all the economic gains of the Trump presidency in a matter of weeks. Better to note that its staggering cost wiped out all of the already debatable benefits to working Americans from decades of globalist trade with China.
Those trade arrangements gave China is hellish "sharp power," the ability to command the private citizens of free nations by threatening economic reprisals if its political agenda is not met. China uses this power CONSTANTLY. We have none of our own.
The CCP dictates the contents of American movies, and it's increasingly obvious it can dictate American news coverage too. It can pull T-shirts off American shelves and force American companies to rewrite their websites. No one with economic interests in China will defy the CCP.
We have nothing comparable because any time American leaders talk about using economic leverage to advance an American agenda, they are savaged as heretics, blasphemers, nationalists, racists, jingoists, MAGA mouth-breathers, selfish troglodytes... to the CCP's boundless delight.
That is why China can pick the leadership of the World Health Organization and make WHO dance like puppets on a string even though it pays a fraction of what we do, while the American president who dares to object is treated like a dangerous madman for freezing funds.
It will cost a huge amount of money for American corporations to bring manufacturing home and cut Chinese supply lines. The globalists and CCP will whisper in their ears that they just need to sit tight and wait for public anger over the Wuhan virus to subside.
If the Democrats manage to use the coronavirus against Trump and wheel Biden into office, the globalists will say it's proof that all of the anger has been dissipated and deflected. Play along with the CCP and the Dems will make sure you reap Hunter Biden-style rewards.
The CCP has a narrative of the pandemic that is a laughably obvious lie, but it will be presented as a PROFITABLE lie to the globalist elites. It's so much easier to believe than the truth. Accepting it will be the price for keeping access to those lovely Chinese markets.
China's lies will have plenty of salespeople in U.S. media and politics. They're hard at work already. They make their pitches on "news" broadcasts and op-ed pages every day. Their minimum objective is muddying the waters and distracting blame to defuse public anger at China.
They've been hard at work ever since the CCP snapped its fingers and "Chinese virus" suddenly became a racist phrase that no American dare speak. Their goal is very achievable. Sustained anger is the only way the American people can force the globalists away from China.
If we make it loud and clear that we won't accept those corrupt arrangements any more - if we make them choose between American consumers and Chinese Communist slave masters - they might decide to change their ways. But that is the ONLY thing that will get the job done.
Do not for an instant imagine that the globalists are chagrined by the hell their policies unleashed. They still assert their moral and intellectual superiority. They have no capacity for introspection whatsoever. They'll sell you out to the monsters of Beijing in a heartbeat.
Only by changing the economic calculations that drove the globalist elite to sell the rest of us out for mountains of Chinese cash can you defeat their policies. Only by using "sharp power" can you defeat it. The CCP will NEVER unilaterally disarm, as we have been made to. /end
