If global trade were a game of Monopoly, China wouldn’t just be winning—it would already own Boardwalk, Park Place, and half the utilities. And while the rest of us pass Go, collect our $200, and head straight for another round of debates and think tank reports, China is busy upgrading its hotels.
That’s the picture Edouard Prisse paints in his no-nonsense book, We Are Funding China’s Growth: That Must Stop!
Since 2001, when the United States championed China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), we’ve effectively handed Beijing a winning strategy. President Clinton, as Prisse bluntly points out, sold the public a fantasy: that free trade with China would modernize their economy, bring democracy, and open markets for American exports.
Instead, we got the opposite. As Prisse explains, “The consequence of this error… is that China’s power is growing greater than the US’s, and this will eventually spell the end of our manufacturing industry and, inevitably, our democratic free society.”
Let’s put that into Monopoly terms:
- China = player with a low-cost production advantage and a huge pool of cash.
- Western nations = players forced to land on China’s hotels and pay up.
- The game board = global trade and investment infrastructure.
China’s strategy has been methodical. With the cash earned through cheap exports—products we love for their affordability—they’ve built a $3 trillion foreign reserve empire. That money isn’t sitting idle. It’s being used to buy real assets, fund major infrastructure globally (like the Belt and Road Initiative), and yes, expand influence.
Consider Sri Lanka, a real-world example Prisse highlights. China offered big loans for infrastructure (a seaport, to be precise), then used debt pressure to extract land and control when repayments floundered. The IMF, meanwhile, was left cleaning up the mess with Western taxpayer-funded loans. Who’s the banker now?
But it’s not just about far-off ports or African mining rights. As Prisse warns, “China is buying political influence within the European Union,” with examples like Greece (via the Port of Piraeus), Hungary, and other strategically placed nations. This is not economic cooperation—it’s quiet acquisition.
And while China plays the long game, the West is still debating if we should even be playing.
Instead of equal trade, what Prisse calls for, we’re stuck in a rigged version of the game where one player brings endless capital, suppresses labor costs through state control, and ignores market forces. In contrast, Western firms are hemmed in by regulations, public scrutiny, and a dangerously short-term focus on quarterly earnings.
It’s not about being “anti-China,” either. Prisse repeatedly stresses admiration for the Chinese people and culture. But admiration doesn’t mean ignorance. It’s the regime—the dictatorial, party-controlled system—that exploits free-market principles to its benefit while suppressing them at home.
So what can we do? As Prisse proposes, it starts with ending free trade and replacing it with equal trade—a system where the U.S. only imports from China as much as it exports. It’s a reset, a new set of game rules.
Because right now, we’re not just losing at Monopoly.
We’re playing against a team that already owns the bank, wrote the rules, and has a plan for every property on the board.