There is much that America can be proud of in our relationship with China. Our nation was often at odds with other global powers in our attempt to protect that nation’s sovereignty. Often, we stood alone. Following independence, our new nation was shut off from trade within the British Empire and both China and the U.S. benefited from cooperative trade agreements. Until driven out by the communists 150 years later, American missionaries in China established churches, schools, and worked to relieve the distress of the poor. When Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan began carving out spheres of influence within China, the United States sought to negotiate “Open Door Agreements” with them to protect Chinese interests. When the Boxer Rebellion threatened the lives of thousands of Europeans and an international military coalition restored order in China, the United States made it a point to use the Chinese financial reparations to educate Chinese students in American universities to assist in its modernization upon their return. In the 1930s, as Japan used its military to invade China, America refused to invoke neutrality in order to legally supply China with weapons. A hundred American pilots volunteered to defend China against Japan as part of the famous Flying Tigers fighter squadrons. America’s continued defense of China was the reason behind Japan’s attack upon Pearl Harbor and our entry into WWII. Americans then built the Burma Road to get needed supplies to Chinese military forces fighting Japan. Following a thaw in the Cold War relations between our nation and China, American businesses led the way in efforts to modernize China. As American corporations invested heavily in China, our own factories were allowed to ‘rust’ and millions of our manufacturing jobs and much of our middle class disappeared entirely.  

What has the United States gained from being China’s longtime protector and most fair western trading partner? We’ve seen Chinese espionage take place at unprecedented levels within our universities, businesses, and scientific research facilities. The FBI recently announced it opens two new investigations each day related to Chinese espionage. China has succeeded in copying our most advanced weapons systems, even to point of having superiority in some areas. The disastrous trade imbalance America shares with China threatens our country’s future. The Chinese openly brag of their influence and infiltration within the top levels of our government.  Chinese spying has led to an unprecedented joint U.S. FBI--British MI5 warning to alert our citizens to the danger. FBI Director Christopher Wray has stated he “was blown away” by the level of current Chinese espionage efforts. China is simultaneously trampling democracy in Hong Kong, committing atrocities against the Uyghurs, and employs slave labor to keep its production costs low. It has provided military aid and has entered into strategic partnerships with our enemies and has even announced the U.S. and NATO should be treated as an enemy.   

While many of the above U.S.- Chinese issues have been the subject of negotiation between our two nations, little or no pressure has been placed upon Xi Jinping to halt China’s distribution of fentanyl to third-party nations such as Mexico. Chinese drug lords and Mexican Cartels now export hundreds of pounds of the deadly drug into the United States and collaborate in extensive money laundering schemes to fund their operations. Last year over 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, mostly from Chinese fentanyl. This represented a 29% increase from the year before. Enough of the drug was seized in 2021 to kill every American. Sadly, as it is deliberately laced with other counterfeit drugs it has become the number one killer of young American adults.

Britain’s imperialist Opium Wars are often cited as on reason China is slow to halt the export of the deadly drug to the West. This comparison represents a false analogy and is irrelevant to the harm it poses to the United States. The refusal of the Biden administration to secure our border will, of course, only increase the number of Americans murdered by this drug. Can this president remind Xi Jinping of America’s long history of support for China? Can he live up to his constitutional duty to protect the lives of innocent Americans who are increasingly being murdered by Chinese drug lords, deadly Mexican Cartels, and a complicit CCP? To counter this threat, the United States needs to warn China that it will face increased U.S. criminal prosecutions, the threat of additional tariffs on its exports, and  calls for investigations by World Health organizations and the United Nations into the manufacture of Chinese illegal drugs. Without such pressure, the genocide against our citizens will continue unabated.

The writer has been a social studies educator, founder of Rho Kappa -- the National Social Studies Honor Society -- past president of the Florida Council for the Social Studies, and a former Elementary School Principal of the Year in Lee County, Florida. He may be reached at: jsbovee@aol.com.

Image: Library of Congress