A very bad neighbor

"Our interests are the last thing China thinks of. They may hate us, they may only dislike us. But they certainly do not like us. The sooner we can divorce them, the better. Right now, we are about as vulnerable as vulnerable can get."

I have a neighbor whom I have a love/hate relationship with. Okay - maybe not too much love. And I try not to hate. In any event, I have thought for a while, that he might not have my best interests at heart. I am very dependent on him however - he allows me to use many things he owns. Of course, he charges me rent to use them. If he ever decided to put an end to that arrangement, I don't know what I would do. I would be stuck.

He is also a nosey SOB. He ease drops on our family all the time. He is a peeking Tom, and at times I have caught him going through out mail box. The last straw however, was when he bought a drone which had special features on it. He flew it over my house and let it loiter. I think he was trying to pick up some "tempest" emissions, leaking from our personal computers. Maybe some passwords, or account info. Man, what a jerk! I accused him of spying on us, and he of course, denied it. I told him next time he flew that drone over my house, I would take my shotgun and shoot it down! 

Get the picture? This is not about me and a neighbor. It is about the United States and China. China, the very bad neighbor. What is our relationship like with China? Very complicated. As they try to steal us blind, and threaten our allies in the South China Sea, they continue to make many of the products that we use here at home.

What would happen if China made a move on Taiwan? And the United States got dragged into that conflict? First off, besides putting our troops stationed in the western Pacific in extreme harm's way, China could also unleash the mother of all cyber attacks on the United States. Even though we could (and most likely would) pay them back with an "eye watering" cyber response, we could have large swaths of the country without electricity, water, gas and so forth. Some, for long periods of time. Could it get any worse? Oh, yes.

They would not even need to nuke us to bring us to our knees. And to our knees we would go in a New York minute. They could immediately cease participation in our supply chain. Everything they make for us (and it is a bunch of stuff) - they would stop. That would be everything, including life giving medications. As we would say in the Navy, China has us by the short hairs. 

Donald Trump would talk about this all the time. We need to make our own stuff. Not China - us. Two years into Biden, and we still are locked into China. If this does not scare you - it should. China is a bad actor. 

Our interests are the last thing China thinks of. They may hate us, they may only dislike us. But they certainly do not like us. The sooner we can divorce them, the better. Right now, we are about as vulnerable as vulnerable can get.