The democidal history of Mainland China (45 million killed in the Great Leap Forward) exceeds that of Nazi Germany (roughly 11 million Jews, Poles and other Slavs, Gypsies, gays, Jehovah's Witnesses, and political dissidents such as the White Rose Society) and Stalinist Russia (7.5 million Ukrainians) put together.  The Nazis were forcibly overthrown in 1945, and the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, but the government founded by Mao Zedong is still in power.  The United States has foolishly allowed the transfer of a great part of its manufacturing capability to this country, and this manufacturing capability is now producing advanced jet fighters and an aircraft carrier along with the consumer goods we see in our stores.

This is simply the Asian cultural characteristic of patience at work, a characteristic already shown by Japanese companies that plan for decades in the future rather than, as practiced by many American companies, the next quarterly financial report.  Tokugawa Ieyasu (Yoshi Toranaga in James Clavell's Shogun) became shogun not by rushing out to war, but rather by waiting until his rivals died or killed one another off.  This puts into practice the guidance of the Chinese general Sun Tzu: "Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist seeks battle only after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory."  Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack, had actually warned Imperial Japan's warlords against attacking the United States for this exact reason — the United States' superior manufacturing capability had won the war before it started — but was overruled.  The warlords wanted instant gratification, which they got at Pearl Harbor but did not last very long.

Alfred Thayer Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power Upon History shows exactly what China is doing to us.  Spain and Portugal discovered gold and silver in the New World, which everybody expected to make them the most powerful countries on earth.  It did the opposite (emphasis is mine): "The mines of Brazil were the ruin of Portugal, as those of Mexico and Peru had been of Spain; all manufactures fell into insane contempt; ere long the English supplied the Portuguese not only with clothes, but with all merchandise, all commodities, even to salt-fish and grain.  After their gold, the Portuguese abandoned their very soil; the vineyards of Oporto were finally bought by the English with Brazilian gold, which had only passed through Portugal to be spread throughout England."

China is now buying up property in the United States with the money we have paid to Chinese manufacturers instead of adhering to our traditional role of the world's largest manufacturer.  Once China gains an overwhelming manufacturing advantage, it can do to us what we did to the Axis during the Second World War.  If China can build five tanks and aircraft for every one of ours, it can then turn its region into another Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere — the same agenda as Imperial Japan's, but this time heeding Sun Tzu's advice.  China already has the NBA kowtowing to it over Hong Kong.  The United States needs to regain its manufacturing capability to curtail this despotic regime's influence.

Education is Better than Tariffs

Trade wars are dangerous, as shown by our country's experience with the Smoot-Hawley tariffs that aggravated the Great Depression.  President Trump should instead use the White House as a bully pulpit to educate American consumers and businesses as to why friends should not let friends buy Chinese if it can possibly be avoided.

Consider, for example, an article of clothing or athletic footwear with a famous celebrity's name on it.  Look for the country of manufacture; it's probably China.  If the retail price tag is, for example, $200, and the cost of the cheap offshore labor used to make it is $20, you're squandering $180, or 90% of the retail price, on the cost of transporting the item to the United States along with the seller's markup and the celebrity's endorsement.  The latter adds no value whatsoever to the item's actual performance.  The mere presence of any celebrity's name or picture tells the intelligent customer instead, "This is a waste of your money."

The same goes for designer clothing.  If the online description says only "Imported," you can be fairly sure it is cheaply made work imported from China or a similar country.  You can probably buy the same thing in Walmart for perhaps a third of the price, albeit minus the designer label.  If the country of origin is, on the other hand, a high-wage, high-quality country like Italy, the seller will generally say so.

This is simply an extension of the longstanding principle that the store brand is almost always cheaper than any name brand but just as functional.  The store brand of bleach is chemically identical to the name-brand bleach.  The store brands of ibuprofen and naproxen sodium are, if you look at the labels, identical to the brand names and cost a lot less.  The active ingredient, and not the brand name, is what relieves your headache or muscle pain.  We are, in this case, talking about a difference of perhaps ten or twenty cents for the bleach and a couple of dollars for the over-the-counter medications, but when it comes to clothing and footwear, the difference can amount to hundreds of dollars.

Get Your Money's Worth

When consumers wake up to the fact that the "suits" — business managers in expensive designer suits whose attention is always on the money rather than the job that produces it — are putting made-in-America prices on made-in-China goods, tariffs will not be needed to help preserve our manufacturing capability.  As but a simple example, I went to a store to buy some holiday greeting cards.  The label on a very upscale-looking card that was priced at $7.50 or $8.00 said "Made in China."  I expected a card that cost perhaps half as much to be Chinese-made as well, but, when I looked at the back, I discovered that it was made in the United States.

When retailers import seasonal goods (like clothing) from China and add a big markup, they must buy large inventories in response to uncertain sales forecasts rather than actual demand.  Intelligent consumers game this system by buying summer clothing in the fall and winter clothing in the spring.  Domestic manufacturers can, on the other hand, replenish retailers' stocks in response to actual purchases so retailers can carry far less inventory and do not need to hold fire sales to get rid of it.

Pretend it's the Great Depression, and every dollar you spend must buy value.  Don't buy extended warranties; don't "fleece" cars; don't incur six figures in debt for an Ivy League degree when a state university will provide as good an education; don't pay for a celebrity's name on whatever you are buying; and, under no circumstances, pay made-in-America prices for Chinese goods.

Civis Americanus is the pen name of an American Thinker contributor who remembers the lessons of history and wants to ensure that our country never needs to learn those lessons again the hard way.