Thoughts on U.S., China, Russia trade

The first shot of a trade war has been fired over the bow of the U.S. economy by China. The United States antitrust laws have prevented the Chinese from buying our electronic chip producing companies. It’s not like we didn’t see this trade war coming. As far back as the end of the Vietnam War, when these trade deals were made by Pres. Nixon and Secretary of State Kissinger, a whole section of the Chinese population was starving. We could either watch the Chinese lash out in Southeast Asia to control rice-growing land, or we could show them a path to earn the money to buy the rice to feed their people.

American industry was more than happy to trade with China because of their labor rates. The United States set up factories in China to build everything from automobiles to Dixie cups. We gave China the know-how to build steel plants. Today China is the largest exporter of steel in the world. And if anyone doubts this our last election was decided by people in the rust belt where the steel mills used to be. American leaders knew so well that the day would come when China would absorb enough technology to compete with us toe-to-toe. Well folks, the day of reckoning has finally arrived. It’s not like we didn’t see this coming, because we went through the same thing with the Russians. We sold and gave away and allowed them to steal enough technology for the Russians to get them into space.

The present administration in Washington is not going to allow the Chinese or the Russians to buy into strategic producing plants that make military equipment. The trade war has existed between Russia and China over the past 20 years. China would buy Russian jet fighters, three or four at a time, and then reverse engineer them. Russia will no longer sell China any military equipment. Hopefully, we have put the right people in the White House to handle this problem.

RED CHANDLER