Biden Admin Fails to Defend American Prosperity

Commentary

The Biden White House has done a poor job of defending American prosperity, which is under attack from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

China has “infiltrated our universities. They’re buying our farmland. They’re stealing technology,” said Rep. Trent Kelly (R-Miss.) on Sept. 23.

According to the 2017 National Security Strategy document from the White House, the Trump administration saw national security as “protecting the American people and preserving the American way of life, promoting American prosperity.”

Among the responsibilities enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, the executive branch must “provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare [prosperity].”

Similarly, the United States Army War College Guide to National Security Issues identifies economic well-being and economic stability as national security goals.

All three federal-level authorities agree that economic prosperity should focus on national security policy. Yet, U.S. policy often misses the mark, allowing economic security to be threatened.

The Heritage Foundation pointed out that U.S. security policy often focuses on the wrong threat. The continued focus of U.S. defense and intelligence strategy on the USSR after the Cold War is a prime example. Although the Cold War ended in 1991, the United States could not shift gears to focus on the rise of extremist terrorism, which began with the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

After 9/11, the U.S. security apparatus again became so focused on terrorism that it ignored other threats, including threats to American prosperity. In August 2011, just three months after U.S. Navy SEALS stormed Osama bin Laden’s compound, the Dow Jones was down more than a trillion dollars. Unemployment stood around 9 percent in the same month. Furthermore, Standard & Poor’s downgraded America’s credit rating due to its massive national debt, which had reached $15 trillion. This was roughly the same as the total GDP.

Today, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (2022), China and Russia represent the greatest security threats to the United States. In a speech delivered to European business leaders, FBI Director Christopher Wray identified the CCP as “the biggest long-term threat to our economic and national security.”

American media and politicians are focusing on the war in Ukraine, although bombs and missiles hitting the United States is only a remote possibility. However, the economic threat from China, which is undermining American prosperity, is already underway yet hardly discussed.

China is facing food security issues that the CCP hopes to alleviate by buying up agricultural resources in foreign countries. As a result, there was a tremendous increase in Chinese ownership of American farmland from 13,720 acres in 2010 to 352,140 acres in 2020. Included in this figure is the purchase of 300 acres of North Dakota farmland by Chinese food manufacturer Fufeng Group in July 2020.

On Aug. 31, the California Senate passed The Food and Farm Security Act, preventing foreign entities from purchasing farmland in California. However, the United States does not have a national law banning foreign ownership of farmland, nor is farmland a sensitive area covered by other legislation restricting Chinese investment.

Between October 2020 and September 2021, over 100,000 Americans died from overdoses of illegal drugs, particularly fentanyl, shipped to the United States from China. In a February 2022 address, Wray said that the CCP is vying for economic superiority and is guilty of fueling the opioid crisis as well as espionage, money laundering, and cybercrime, which he has referred to as “cyber thievery.”

At the same time, Chinese companies, many with state and military ties, benefit from participating in U.S. capital markets. According to a U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) report, “China’s military-industrial ecosystem encompasses state and nonstate firms, research institutes, and investment funds, all acting in concert in service of China’s military modernization objectives.”

This makes Chinese companies in the U.S. foreign agents as they are acting at the behest of a foreign government. Even worse, these Chinese companies can access U.S. capital through listing on stock exchanges, being included in stock market indices, or through venture capital and private investment.

The USCC believes tariffs, negotiation, and other trade remedies are too slow, cumbersome, and inefficient at protecting American prosperity.

At the same time, illegal immigrants, including drug traffickers, are streaming in through the southern border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) estimates that in April alone, 184,000 people were released into the United States.

Meanwhile, in the final week of September, the Biden administration approved an additional $1.1 billion to purchase weapons for Ukraine. The administration is focusing defense resources on a war that poses little or no threat to the United States while American prosperity is being actively undermined.

In his classic work on the role of government, Thomas Hobbes wrote that security is the most important duty of the federal government; without security, citizens would not be free to live their daily lives. This is consistent with the view of Adam Smith, the founder of modern economics. He posited that the greatest prosperity would come to the citizenry if the government would leave commerce to be regulated by the “invisible hand” of free markets while concerning itself with protecting the national borders and providing for security and private property rights within those borders.

So far, the Biden administration has done poorly in protecting the national borders or providing for security and private property rights within those borders, all of which have detracted from American prosperity.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.