China presents the most serious threat America faces today

President Joe Biden “dropped an ominous note into his remarks to American service members at a Virginia military base last May, telling them that his Chinese counterpart believes Beijing will ‘own America’ inside the next 15 years,” as reported by the New York Post.

“We’re in a battle between democracies and autocracies,” Biden told troops at Joint Base Langley Eustis in Hampton. “The more complicated the world becomes, the more difficult it is for democracies to come together and reach consensus.”

Biden said that China’s President Xi Jinping “firmly believes that China, before the year [20]30, ’35, is going to own America because autocracies can make quick decisions,” although he did not elaborate on what was meant by “own America.” 

A story reported by Fox News in June a year earlier provided some details of what China has been doing, from the American Security Institute, listing five areas where China has focused its attention.

Medicine: China produces 97 percent of U.S. antibiotics and about 80 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in American drugs, giving the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) absolute control of potentially life-saving medicine. 

Food: In 2017, the United States imported $4.6 billion in agricultural goods from China. A Chinese firm has also purchased Smithfield, the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. Smithfield provides more than 40,000 American jobs. It partners with thousands of American farmers.

According to the U.S. Agriculture Department, by the start of 2020, Chinese owners controlled about 192,000 agricultural acres in the U.S., worth $1.9 billion, including land used for farming, ranching and forestry.

Education: The Chinese government's theft of intellectual property has been known for decades. More recently, U.S. authorities have discovered China is funding American university researchers, who don't always disclose that support.

Technology: The manufacturing of smartphones and other household items is heavily reliant on China, which controls most of the rare earth minerals that make those items work. China is seeking to build 5G networks in the United States, which could potentially feed sensitive data to the CCP.

Media: Chinese firms have bought control of 8,000-plus American theater screens and other media platforms. Thus, China can project a positive image, and block unflattering depictions of its government, in terms of both creative production and mass distribution.

The story continues, telling us that Chinese firms and investors own a controlling majority in nearly 2,400 U.S. companies. These are in the areas of aerospace, automotive, energy, entertainment, food, health care, machinery, mining, and technology.

Among these are: AMC Entertainment (entertainment), Cirrus Wind Energy (energy), Complete Genomics (health care), First International Oil (energy), G.E. Appliances (technology), IBM—P.C. division (technology), Legendary Entertainment Group (entertainment), Motorola Mobility (technology), Nexteer Automotive (automotive), Riot Games (entertainment), Smithfield Foods (food), Teledyne Continental Motors and Mattituck Services (aerospace), Terex Corp. (machinery), Triple H Coal (mining), and Zonare Medical Systems (health care).

"Under China's Communist Party dictatorship, private companies are forced to bend to the government's will," the report states.

This situation has only grown worse since those stories came out. You may remember some more recent stories about Chinese operatives being caught with their fingers in the pie.

"The first priority is to reclaim our critical supply chains so that we can become self-secure instead of reliant on the Chinese government," Will Coggin, managing director of the American Security Institute, told Fox News.

U.S. lawmakers are acting with increased concern on this issue, and both Iowa and Minnesota have passed state laws restricting foreign ownership of farmland in their states. 

While it is good that the Congress and some states have started to address this situation, it requires much more attention and action than what we have seen thus far. What can be more important to the United States than maintaining ownership and control of these vital areas of our economy, and the jobs and products under their control?

In addition to prohibiting or strictly regulating foreign ownership of U.S. companies, we should intensify efforts to bring domestic manufacturing of many products we no longer produce here, or now produce less of, back into the country.

The possibility of China having developed a heat-seeking hypersonic missile adds to the growing threat from the communist nation. The existence of such a weapon, sources say, would be a significant change in how warfare is conducted.

U.S. officials reacted to strong indications of a Chinese test of such a missile last August with surprise and shock, saying they were unaware that hypersonic missile development had reached this level. And, they suggested that our development of hypersonic missiles is far behind.

Hypersonic missiles travel at low trajectories at speeds over 15,000 mph, making them more difficult to track, and are capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

Chinese officials have denied testing such a missile, and insisted that nuclear weapons would be used only in self-defense, not as an offensive weapon. But the United States, and most other countries, say hypersonic missiles would not be practical, unless nuclear war was on the table.

Even if China does not intend to “own America,” we should not allow any nation to have so much control over our businesses, and especially not to be further advanced militarily than we are.