China, trade, and the echoes of Billy Mitchell

One of the greatest visionaries in American history was William “Billy” Mitchell. Mitchell, an early American airman, served with distinction in World War I and was the loudest voice in America afterwards in insisting that the future of warfare was in the air, not on sea, and that the United States needed to focus its war readiness on the development of aircraft. His superiors, greatly annoyed, dispatched him to Hawaii in the early 1920s, and then later to Europe and Asia.

Mitchell’s travels led to a 323-page report delivered in 1924 warning of Japanese air power and nefarious intentions. He also warned of the dangers posed to Hawaii and the Philippines. He was ignored, but not silenced. Ultimately the military tried to silence him with one of the most egregious courts-martial in American history. Mitchell wasn’t publicly silenced, however, and he continued to make speeches around the country in defense of his concerns. Mitchell died in 1936 and received posthumous recognition for his insight. That did little good for the 2,403 American who were killed at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

{mosads}If it pleases the reader, I would like to humbly offer an imitation of Billy Mitchell’s public comments. The context in this case will be, not Japan, but China, tariffs and the next 100 years:

Last week while the American media continued its obsession with trying to cast President Donald Trump in the sequel to “The Madness of King George,” they mostly missed or downplayed a major news story as reported in Britain’s Sunday Express. Leaked internal documents from China’s military candidly reveal their plans for military advancement and conquest. I quote from here from Martina Bet’s piece: “As we open up and expand our national interests beyond borders, we desperately need a comprehensive protection of our own security around the globe.” The report adds that a military expansion will allow China to “more effectively create a situation, manage a crisis, contain a conflict, win a war, defend the expansion of our country’s strategic interests in an all-round fashion and realise the goals set by the party and Chairman Xi.”

The documents go further in addressing the need to grow military power in order to match and surpass the United States and Russia. It is already known that China is adding aircraft carriers, adding missile capability, expanding its base presence in the South China Sea, and improving its fighter jet technology.

In my current “stump speech” I give across the country, one of the four major concerns I address is the next 100 years against our clear, but unsworn, enemy in China. While the common conventions are to identify Russia or radical Islam as the greatest threats to the United States, I argue that the most significant, patient, persistent and powerful threat we face is from our great trading partner across the Pacific.

Let me offer some simple facts that matter. First, China is not a communist country. Private property ownership is permitted in China. China is a fascist country practicing an economic form of that discipline that is revolutionary and has been very effective. They have already launched a guerrilla invasion of every Western country by sinking their fangs of economic dependence into them.

Second, while acknowledging that one of my greatest influencers on economic theory is Milton Friedman, his oft-repeated argument — that free trade with a “closed” nation is one of the surest ways to drive it toward freedom and partnership — has not worked with the Chinese. If you stumble across a primitive and peace-loving tribe and introduce fire to them, they will learn to use it for good. If you introduce fire to a primitive tribe of warriors, they will study it, master it, and burn down your house. Since President Richard Nixon’s opening to China, they have been busily making matches.

Third, to my free market friends who draw 1929’s Smoot Hawley like a gun when talking about tariffs and China, please, let’s all be honest and acknowledge there is no free trade taking place with China and there never has been. China restricts our imports, steals our intellectual property, dumps goods that they stole from us into world markets, and cyber-attacks us at every turn.

There is much concern over President Trump’s Chinese tariffs. Everyone is worried about the coming trade war. I ask my audiences as I now ask you: Would you prefer a real war? Would you rather pay more for certain items and have some workers lose jobs in some industries, or would you rather pay the high cost of rationing and war production, and have some of your children lose their lives in combat?

Asian cultural patience is the stuff of legend. American patience is best evidenced by what happens in a grocery store line when one person asks to cash a check. The famous Chinese general, Sun Tzu, credited with writing the classic “The Art of War,” taught the need for patience and the passing of time to defeat the enemy. Americans love to quote Sun Tzu’s principles and relate them to business. The Chinese are still using them for their original purpose.

We can fight a war now with container loads, U.S dollars and China’s renminbi, or we can fight one down the road with planes, payloads, bullets.

For my colleagues in support of free markets, please don’t rush to Twitter to say Charlie Kirk has abandoned his principles. It is one thing to be against something in the general, and another to understand its use in the specific. Tariffs are a tool; to be rarely used, but to be used when necessary as part of a strategic objective. Even President Ronald Reagan utilized them against Japan in the ’80s to address its unfair practices surrounding semiconductors and other technology.

But this is bigger than that. President Trump understands exactly what China is doing. I believe I understand what the president is doing. I pray he stays the course and that subsequent presidents are willing to follow.

Charlie Kirk is founder and president of Turning Point USA, a nonprofit that promotes free-market values and limited government.