Despite risks, showdown with China is necessary

Not being a soybean farmer in Iowa, or an importer of Chinese-made knickknacks and gizmos, I haven't been affected by Trump's tariffs on Chinese products. I realize, when push comes to shove, and shove turns into protectionist assault, I too will suffer financially, along with everyone else. I keep my retirement funds in the stock and bond markets, and my dollar is identical to yours and the Fed's. Despite that, I'm all in for a showdown with China.

Every American CEO and assembly-line worker and trade negotiator knows China has for years stolen our intellectual property and industrial patents and, by various means, decimated our manufacturing base. Trump is using a sledgehammer to remedy a complicated problem, but only because the establishment in Washington refuses to assist him in any delicate diplomatic surgery.

China has imperialist ambitions. Whereas the Great Wall was meant to keep barbarians out, Xi Jinping's "Belt & Road Initiative" is designed to encircle the world within China's hegemony. Even Mao was content to rule only his own people; now Xi is bullying his neighbors in the South China Sea, and twisting arms in embassies and board rooms internationally.

I saw this coming when I lived in Xiamen and Tianjin in the early 1980s, when China was recovering from the melee of the Cultural Revolution. I saw then how a Confucian sensibility, when infused with Communist ideology, could mask ruthlessness with sweet courtesy.

Now that the Chinese have mastered capitalism, a modern dragon has arisen - not fiery with malevolence, but focused in its certitude. Watch Xi Jinping's empty facial expression - it is unnerving. But I know what the man is thinking. I, too, am Chinese. From what I have observed and experienced of the Oriental mindset, and of centralized power, I say resist the dragon now before it consumes us.

Alexander Lee

West Chicago