China’s Commerce Ministry last week announced far-reaching export controls on lithium batteries, products that use Chinese rare-earth materials, and related technologies. The export controls, which President Trump characterized as “a rather sinister and hostile move,” are the latest reminder that the U.S. is funding its own destruction through economic dependence on a communist adversary.
Many American business elites persist in denying this reality. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a recent interview that while some Americans wear the label “China hawk” as a badge of honor, it is really “a badge of shame.” The future, Mr. Huang says, “doesn’t have to be all us or them. It could be us and them.”
A nice sentiment, but Chinese Communist Party leaders don’t believe it. They often speak soothingly of their country’s “peaceful rise.” But the party’s history and actions tell a different story. Influenced by the Chinese Civil War and the much-earlier Warring States period, the party believes that stability comes from control. This belief explains its ruthless efforts to consolidate power. The Communist Party believes China and the U.S. are locked in a “great struggle” for mastery. In this worldview, it isn’t enough for China to rise—the U.S. must fall.