Paid by China is replacing ‘made in China’

OPINION:

China, led by Chairman Xi Jinping, has adversarial ambitions against America. Mr. Xi is not interested in a “made in China” manufacturing society. He is pursuing a grand strategy of global superiority as evidenced by his “paid by China” debt-trap investment portfolio.

China is expanding its geopolitical and geographical influence by building infrastructure as part of its debt-trap investment program. Since 2013, China has adopted the One Belt One Road Initiative in Africa, investing in nearly 200 countries and international organizations to link land corridors by road, rail, energy and digital infrastructure. This “paid by China” infrastructure is increasingly becoming owned by China, as host countries and partners cannot fulfill the terms of the “loans.”

Conducting reconnaissance on the United States in 2023, China flew a spy balloon from coast to coast to include Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska — home to the U.S. Strategic Command responsible for global nuclear and strategic deterrence. Each of these states is individually home to Air Force bases that house two of the three legs of America’s nuclear triad: the land-based component of intercontinental ballistic missiles and silos and air-based components, including nonconventional bombers.

The uptick in Chinese attempts to buy farmland near U.S. nuclear military bases continues to be circumvented with successful congressional leadership. Sen. Steve Daines, Montana Republican, included the Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security Act in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, a step in the right direction to prevent China from adversely affecting America’s food security and national security.

Yet there is further encroachment of China proximate to America’s borders. Less than 100 miles from Mar-a-Lago, fondly referred to as “Trump’s winter White House,” and the coastline of Palm Beach, Florida, China is investing its interests and reach in the Bahamas with $350 billion of investments that are “paid by China.”

China’s tactics of debt-trap investment infrastructure follow the same playbook in the Bahamas as seen in Africa. In cooperation with the Bahamian government, the China Harbour Engineering Co., or CHEC, has constructed a port and bridge linking the islands of North Abaco and Little Abaco.

While there is ongoing concern about China’s imminent invasion of Taiwan and the posturing of its naval assets in the Indo-Pacific, the United States’ closest Caribbean neighbor is positioning Chinese fisheries resulting from the CHEC infrastructure similarly.

The positioning of these commercial fishing vessels allows China to collect intelligence, and they are geographically close to the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center, a U.S. Navy facility that conducts underwater and in-air testing on Andros Island.

The next four years will become a tipping point in redefining and redirecting what Mr. Xi believes is his mandate to “lead the reform of global governance systems.” Mr. Xi is accomplishing this mandate via a “paid by China” debt-trap investment approach.

A watching world anticipates what the relationship between the West and East will become under President-elect Donald Trump and his administration. Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican and Mr. Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, has a strong voice and sharp mind that will not fall for the “paid by China” strategy.

Responding to Chinese expansion in the Bahamas and in his leadership role on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Rubio firmly commented, “We keep an eye on it all the time.” Once confirmed, Mr. Rubio can be a tremendous force in shaping informed and future-thinking diplomacy to counter an ambitious and assertive posturing of a “paid by China” development and investment portfolio.

In addition, the incoming Trump administration should offer American corporations incentive to divest from Chinese-owned and Chinese-backed corporations. Congress should also hold U.S. organizations accountable if they fail to divest their portfolios from the interest of Beijing’s “paid by China” agenda, as the dollars are directly used to undermine U.S. national interests politically, militarily, economically and socially.

“Paid by China” is an investment structure incompatible with America’s national interests. The incoming Trump administration must be attuned to how the geographical expansion of the East affects the West as it formulates a proactive grand strategy that emphasizes diplomacy — or peace through strategy.

• Brooke Taylor is the founder and CEO of Defending Our Country LLC (www.docbrooke.net).