Trump understands China is on its way to global domination and must be stopped

President Trump is launching a tariff blitz on the world for one reason: China.

China’s economy is built on a system that distorts free trade.

Determined to grow at any cost, China has been overproducing everything. It started with roads and rail lines, then moved to apartments and mansions, and now it’s cars, refrigerators and semiconductors.

These goods are dumped on foreign markets, including in America. Trump’s tariffs may be disruptive, but they can serve a function — forcing a global realignment that is far overdue.

Since the early 2000s, China has leveraged cheap labor and lax environmental standards to flood the world with low-cost goods, displacing American industries. More than 3.5 million US jobs have been lost to China.

In 2023, a Chinese company, Ching Tai Wire and Cable, announced a new factory in Dongguan — while, one year later, Michigan’s National Standard, a leading wire manufacturer, shut down after 117 years in business.

Over the last decade, China’s economic model accelerated, using “transferred” technology from Western companies to push out competitors, costing American companies between $225 billion and $600 billion a year.

Intellectual property theft and other unfair practices allowed China to advance from low-quality goods to high-tech manufacturing in areas like computing, robotics and semiconductors.

China aims to dominate global markets through “non-market” strategies such as subsidies, currency manipulation, monopolies, and restrictions on foreign companies operating in China.

These state-driven policies have led to a manufacturing boom in China.

The Chinese car company BYD is now building a factory in Zhengzhou that will sprawl over 50 square miles, the size of San Francisco, and 10 times the size of Tesla’s largest factory.

In 2021, China produced nearly one-third of the world’s goods, and experts predict that could rise to 43% by 2050 without intervention.

China’s strategy has fundamentally damaged America’s industrial sectors, but we are not alone.

European, Japanese, and South Korean companies also find themselves up against Chinese champions that manufacture entire supply chains: screens, semiconductors, memory chips, batteries, cameras, and cases — even mining and processing the critical minerals like lithium or gallium that those parts rely on.

China’s export dumping has also hurt economies globally, from Brazil to South Africa. Half of all dumping investigations last year were aimed at China.

Even countries that are traditionally allies of China, like Russia, are feeling the impact. After Western companies left Russia in 2022, imports of Chinese cars surged, prompting Russia to impose new trade barriers on Chinese imports.

True, China’s overproduction and government subsidies have left its economy vulnerable. Youth unemployment is high, municipalities are drowning in debt, and the housing market is in crisis.

Despite this, China’s government is unwilling to slow down production. For the second year in a row, the Communist Party has set a growth target of about 5%, which means more production — more cars, more steel, more dishwashers — regardless of demand or market conditions.

Central planning overrides market signals and profit incentives.

While Trump’s tariff policies may seem erratic, they could succeed if they unify the world against China.

As Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday, “We can probably reach a deal with our allies . . . And then we can approach China as a group.”

This is the right approach. Allies are essential, but they also need the United States.

Now is the time to implement a global tariff regime that blocks the flood of cheap Chinese exports, challenges China’s threats against Taiwan, and combats its efforts to spread economic instability worldwide.

Our supply chains should be rewired for allies, not adversaries. Even a much-needed resurgence of US manufacturing will need global partners to process minerals, supply components, and assemble products.

Together, the world could build a better, fairer, and more open global economy.

China should be forced to adapt — or fend for itself.