But the increasingly frequent and public demonstrations of defiance represent a significant threat to the Communist government, especially as the incumbent hard-liners age and transition becomes inevitable. Instead of bolstering the Communist government, we should be trying to undermine it. The truth is that China needs us a whole lot more than we need them. For decades, western businessmen have salivated at the potential of the Chinese market. But China has made it clear that they will never allow that potential to become reality.
China has no respect for intellectual property.
The Chinese need Western technology in order to mount a strategic challenge to the West, and they intend to get it by any means necessary. In the long term, benefits to the West of a trade relationship with China will be few, while benefits to China will be many. Like most conservatives, I support free trade, but this is not free trade. This is mercantilism designed not to further economic growth, but to build China's capacity to challenge us militarily. The longer we allow this to continue, the greater the risk that some day China will succeed in becoming the threat they would like us to believe they already are.