China's Military - Industrial / Sweatshop Complex

by Joel D. Joseph

We now have a staggering $ 60 billion trade deficit with China. Half of our trade with China is with the Chinese military, various segments of the People's Liberation Army and prison labor camps. The other half is with sweatshops, where workers toil 70 hours a week for 23 cents an hour.

As long as we provide them with our technology, everything can be made cheaper in China than in the United States. On a microeconomic level (based on one factory) it makes economic sense for every business to have their products made in China because it will be cheaper.

However, on a macroeconomic, or nationwide, basis, this would be devastating to the economy because all manufacturing would cease and millions of Americans would no longer be employed and no longer able to buy any products wherever they are made. Congress and the president should look at the relationship with China on a nationwide basis, but both have failed to do so.

If you have looked at labels lately, nearly everything is being made in China. The Washington Post reported, "Among American companies that buy products from the Chinese military and paramilitary police are some of the biggest names in retailing: Nordstrom, Macy's, Kmart, Wal-Mart and Montgomery Ward." The Chinese military is selling us everything from raincoats and rifles, to pants, toys and automotive parts.

For example, the China Jingan Import and Export company (People's Armed Police) exports rifles, wooden block sets and toys to the United States. You can find their products at Toys 'R' Us. The China Pinghe Imports and Exports company (PLA General Staff Department) sells backpacking tents. The China Songhai Industrial Corp. (PLA Navy) makes ski gloves found at many pricey ski shops. China Tiancheng Corp. makes rain gear and wooden toys also found at Toys 'R' Us.

China Xinshidai company (Commission on Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense) makes sporting goods. China Xinxing Import and Export (PLA General Logistics Department) exports fish, men's pants, scallops, peaches and furniture. Billions of dollars from these sales bloat the bank accounts of the People's Liberation Army. This money is used to buy new aircraft from Russia, develop missiles capable of hitting targets in the United States with nuclear weapons and building a massive navy. One day China may use these weapons to overtake Taiwan or even Japan. Or they may even use the weapons against the United States whose consumers have inflated their bank accounts.

The PLA is not a free market enterprise. Its goal is not to maximize profits, but to earn cash to buy weapons. The Chinese Gulag, a network of prison camps, also produces billions of dollars worth of products for the U.S. market. Prisoners, like members of the armed forces, are not a free workforce, or a free-market entity. This is not Adam Smith's invisible hand making efficient production decisions: it is a fierce military dictatorship building up its empire.

Nearly everything that carries a "Made in China" label could have come from a prison camp. U.S. law expressly prohibits these imports, but little is being done to stop them.

Everything that you buy from China is harming the American way of life. It is making some Americans rich while impoverishing millions. It is strengthening the Chinese military and enriching those who run the prison factories.

When will Congress and the president wake up and realize that China is burying us with our own greed?

To give China most-favored nation status is merely digging our own grave.