Once again, the news cycle delivers a jaw-dropping tale that could easily be mistaken for a Hollywood spy thriller. Communist China, with its usual flair for the dramatic, has allegedly been caught red-handed, plotting to smuggle dangerous biological pathogens into America. Not to mention the unending fiasco of fentanyl flooding into the country. It’s like they’re compiling a checklist of threats right out of a dystopian novel, and the rest of us are left wondering if anyone’s paying attention.
Americans are understandably skeptical about expecting fair trade talks with China. After all, it seems like every other week there’s a new scandal involving underhanded tactics and questionable grad students posing as innocent researchers in our universities. Let’s not forget that this is the same Communist Party that never met a cover-up it didn’t like, as seen with the COVID-19 saga. Now, some might give them the benefit of the doubt, but the rest of us aren’t willing to be the audience for this bad magic act.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum weighed in on this conundrum, pointing out that the escapades of these so-called students are reinventing all sorts of espionage tactics. Reminiscent of past agricultural thefts, they’re bringing seeds in shoes – and not the kind that fit into a garden. While China spins its web, America grapples with maintaining competitive ties and managing the faltering support systems back home.
Meanwhile, the elephant in the room—rare earth minerals—sits smugly as China corners the market, controlling a vast majority of the processing that modern technology relies on. As the U.S. balances on the precarious edge of dependence, calls grow louder for a serious plan to regain critical independence in mining and energy production. Thank goodness, as some would say, that the Trump administration recognized this need, launching initiatives like “mine, baby, mine,” a sibling slogan to the iconic “drill, baby, drill.”
To top it all, we have the energy race that seems to have skipped America for a pit stop in China. They’re producing gigawatts of coal like it’s a race to the moon. Yet, in the U.S., rather than refueling our energy grid, there’s a relentless push towards intermittent sources that don’t hold a candle to our demands. Perhaps it’s time America takes a leaf—or coal—out of China’s book, before we find ourselves in economic captivity, praying for more power while sitting in the dark. Alaska offers a golden opportunity for energy independence if only we’d harness its vast resources with the same gusto as Berlin endorsed renewable futility. It’s clear the U.S. must become more proactive unless we plan on waiting around for another history-making blunder.
