They always underestimate us.  First it was King George III, then it was Kaiser Wilhelm.  Then came the fascists of Japan, followed quickly by Adolf Hitler.  Then came Stalin, followed by a succession of Russian communists.  Now it's the chairman of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping.

Our 40th President, Ronald Reagan, promised to dump the Russian communists on the ash heap of history and proceeded to do just that.  We will do the same to the Chinese communists, and we will do it as a united nation, with all partisanship set aside.  The American people demand nothing less.

We've finally found something Speaker Pelosi and President Trump agree on.  With their crackdown on the brave people of Hong Kong, the communists have crossed their red line.  If exporting the Wuhan virus wasn't enough, this brutal betrayal of the people of Hong Kong  demonstrates beyond doubt that the Chinese communists are just like all the communists all over the world.  They are reckless, indifferent to human life and suffering, and hungry for world power.  They will stop at nothing — unless they are stopped. 

Our policy with China must be nothing less than regime change.  We want the people of China to overthrow the Communist Party and replace it with a new government of their choosing.  Hopefully, it will be democratic, but that's up to them.

We will not go to war with the Chinese communists, just as we didn't have a shooting war with the Russian communists.  It won't be necessary to put boots on the ground.  There will be no military conflict unless they choose to somehow confront the United States Navy in the South China Sea.  But they can't be that foolish, can they?

Because we're coming out of the worst economic recession since World War II, we must not disengage with China hastily.  Our economy needs to heal.  The vital industries that are needed to produce strategic materials need time to prepare.  Global supply chains must be detached from China.  This will all take time.

President Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden must both tone down their rhetoric.  We cannot publicly announce that our goal is the destruction of the communist regime.  Let our actions speak louder than our words.

There were some who took exception to my post from Thursday when I suggested opening our arms to the inevitable refugees from Hong Kong.  If we were ever to take in any refugees, from anywhere in the world, they should be the English-speaking, capitalist, entrepreneurial, wealthy, and democratic people of Hong Kong.  Once they're here, they will be invaluable in the long struggle ahead with the Communist Party of China.

And they'll be prouder to be Americans than many of us born here.

Fritz Pettyjohn blogs at ReaganProject.com.