I like political leaders who speak plainly about the dangers of communism. I recall Ronald Reagan calling the communists in Russia an evil empire for the way they oppressed their people and the peoples of Eastern Europe in the 1980s. I liked the way he called Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. Reagan was the leader of the free world calling out the communists for oppressing their people. Reagan called a spade a spade.

Our current leaders do not speak so clearly. When he was running for President, Joe Biden said this about Communist China, “I want China to succeed.” During a campaign stop in Iowa, Biden said, “They’re not bad folks, folks.... They’re not competition for us.”

Now Communist China is hosting the Winter Olympics. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sees China a bit more clearly than President Biden. While wishing our athletes well, she added a warning. “I do not encourage them to speak out against the Chinese government there because I fear for their safety if they do.” She later added, “They are there to compete” and are not to “risk incurring the anger of the Chinese government because they are ruthless.”

I have lived in a free country for 68 years. As I look over our history, I see that millions of immigrants have come here attracted by the freedoms and benefits of living in a free society. At the same time, I do not see throngs of people trying to immigrate to communist countries like China. Why is that?

If they were here today, Reagan of the USA and Churchill of the UK would tell us that we cannot appease tyrants. I am sick of hearing Americans telling us to “walk on eggshells” around the communists in China. Their enslavement of over a billion people in China is just as evil as the enslavement of blacks in our country prior to 1863 when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

The taste of slavery is still in our mouths and yet we are silent as the communists enslave their people and coerce nations to kowtow to their power. How did the communists in China become so powerful?

Image: Ronald Reagan giving the Evil Empire speech (edited in befunky). YouTube screen grab

Back at the end of the 1960s, President Nixon and his envoy Henry Kissinger were trying to figure out how to contain the communists in Soviet Russia. They knew that the communists controlling Russia and the communists controlling China distrusted each other. They saw this communist competition as an opportunity.

The resulting “ping-pong” diplomacy between the USA and Communist China was sold to the American people as a way to open new markets and encourage a path of democratization in China. I do not believe that Nixon and Kissinger understood the depravity of the communists in China.

Kissinger and Nixon hoped that Western influences would soften the iron grip China had on its people. Instead, they gave the Chinese an opportunity to synthesize a sinister form of communism that makes lots of money.

Kissinger and Nixon also forgot about the greed of politicians in Washington. As China grew in the new era of US/Sino cooperation, they sought more favorable trade agreements from US lawmakers.

It would be illuminating to know how many Washington politicians are “on the take” from China. A recent book by Peter Schweitzer claims that President Biden’s family has received 31 million dollars from the communists in China. If I had gotten 31 million from the Chinese Communists, I might be tempted to say, “They are not bad folks” too.

I do wonder what plain-speaking people like Churchill, Reagan, or Mark Twain might offer about American politicians “on the take” from our enemies in China.