In a world where financial muscle increasingly defines geopolitical power, China’s trade surplus has quietly become one of the most potent threats to global democracy. While many view trade deficits and surpluses as dry economic terms, Edouard Prisse’s timely and urgent book, We Were Funding China’s Growth That Must Stop!, exposes the reality.
Since joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, China has maintained an ever-growing trade surplus with the U.S. and the West. In 2022 alone, China’s trade surplus reached a staggering $870 billion, and it continues to climb. This surplus is being converted into hard geopolitical currency. For example, according to the IMF, China holds over $3.1 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, far outpacing other global players. Unlike democratic nations that are restrained by checks and balances, China’s authoritarian regime can spend this money strategically, instantly, and globally.
Prisse makes a compelling argument that this economic weapon is not being used to uplift citizens or promote equality. Instead, it’s funding a new form of imperialism of soft power, debt diplomacy, and infrastructure investment. Countries like Sri Lanka are prime examples. Seduced by Chinese-funded infrastructure projects such as the Hambantota Port, Sri Lanka fell into debt it couldn’t repay. Beijing, in return, took control of strategic land and assets—a modern version of colonial acquisition executed without a single shot fired.
This financial influence is not limited to developing nations. China’s deep-pocket investments in Europe, including buying up Greece’s Piraeus port and striking deals in Hungary, have silenced criticism and fractured European unity on key issues like human rights and security. As Prisse explains, “China is not trying to be a good global citizen; it’s leveraging our money to bend the world to its interests.”
China’s foreign exchange reserves are changing international alliances and threatening democratic norms. In countries that receive Chinese funding, press freedom diminishes, transparency erodes, and sovereignty is traded for short-term economic relief. When money becomes a tool of coercion, the democratic process becomes vulnerable.
By prioritizing cheap imports and ignoring long-term consequences, the West has bankrolled China’s rise. “The money you spend on your next online purchase from China,” Prisse warns, “isn’t just going to a factory, it’s going into a war chest.”
Reversing this trend requires more than tariffs. It requires a complete rethinking of trade relationships and what Prisse calls “equal trade.” Only by balancing imports and exports in real value terms can the West stop the unchecked transfer of economic power.
Global democracy cannot survive if the world’s most powerful player doesn’t play by its rules. The longer we allow the trade imbalance to continue, the more we assist in building the very system that threatens to replace us. So, it is time for us to stop funding China and start building our own terms to maintain equilibrium worldwide.
For more information and insight, please read We Were Funding China’s Growth That Must Stop!. Order your copy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1967963053.