China’s rise to economic dominance was not inevitable. According to Edouard Prisse in We Are Funding China’s Growth, it was the direct result of policy failures by Western leaders, particularly the Bill Clinton decision in 2001to allow free trade with China. The U.S. and its allies ignored the consequences of empowering this authoritarian regime with its huge reserves of poor but obedient citizens, low wages, cruel manipulation of these workers and state-controlled industries.
Prisse argues that if the error of free trade would not have been made, China’s unchecked rise would not have taken place. But he also argues that letting free trade continue, even now, will inevitably bring Chinese world supremacy, whereas ending this free trade now will leave a window open for our society to survive the Chinese onslaught. In other words that it is highly urgent to end this free trade.
1. The U.S. Should Have Rejected Free Trade with China
The most critical mistake was President Clinton’s decision to grant China access to the World Trade Organization (WTO) under the false assumption that free trade would democratize China. As stated in his speech on March 8, 2000, President Clinton and his advisers wrongly believed that:
- China would open its markets to Western goods.
- American manufacturing would benefit, not suffer.
- No knowledge would ever be stolen by China,
- Economic liberalization would lead to political liberalization and democracy
The opposite happened. Cheap prices in China ensured it started to export hugely more than it imported. Also, instead of democratizing, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), after having seen the USSR demise in 1990, strengthened its grip on power.
Prisse asserts that had the U.S. and Europe not entered into this free trade agreement, China’s growth would have remained slow and controlled, its economy rickety rather than so hugely successful.
Instead of allowing unrestricted imports, Prisse suggests that the only way now to correct the ongoing funding of China’s economy with our money, the U.S. should change free trade with China into a policy of ‘Equal Trade’, thus regulating that imports from China will only permitted if they match U.S. exports to China, measured in money.
Right now, China’s trade surplus with the U.S. exceeds $600 billion annually, allowing Beijing to continue to increase their massive reserves. In 2022 it even topped at $870 billion.
3. Theft of Western Technology
Another critical factor in China’s rise has been its systematic theft of Western technology. Prisse highlights how American corporations were forced to transfer intellectual property in exchange for market access in China.
Chinese firms reverse-engineered Western innovations, undercutting competitors and gaining dominance in telecommunications, electronics, and energy.
During many years, the WTO failed to enforce intellectual property protections, allowing China to steal and replicate American technology with impunity.
Had the U.S. implemented strict penalties for intellectual property theft and banned forced technology transfers, China would not have been able to leapfrog into global economic leadership.
5. Preventing China’s Global Expansion
Prisse details how China, with the money earned with this free trade:
- Loaned billions to developing countries, trapping them in debt dependency.
- Acquired strategic ports, highways, and energy assets across Africa, Asia, and Europe.
- Used economic leverage to exert political influence, both in Africa and in the European Union
The Path Not Taken
Prisse’s book makes clear for the first time that China’s economic rise was not inevitable—it is the result of the Western mistake by President Clinton. If leaders had pursued trade balance, stopped technology transfers, enforced intellectual property laws, China’s rise would not have taken place.
Instead, China is now a global superpower. The question remains: Will the U.S. and its allies finally take corrective action? If free trade continues as it is done now, China’ supremacy will increase and become inevitable. If on the other hand, the funding of the Chinese economy by this free trade disequilibrium is stopped, there are still good chances that the West can weather the onslaught.
Prisse gives a ‘how to do that’ scenario.