Both Democrats and Republicans have played significant roles in integrating China into the global economy. However, the Democratic Party has played the principal role in developing and implementing laws and policies promoting economic interdependence—with help from the neoliberal-minded Republicans.
It was under President Bill Clinton that the US granted China Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) in 2000, paving the way for China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) the next year. PNTR accelerated offshoring and economic integration, undermining the standing of American workers and weakening national security. Under his presidency, George W. Bush deepened the economic ties that Democrats had forged under Clinton. As explained in a recent essay on Freedom and Reason, this ilk of Republicans are globalists who align with the progressive transnationalist project to integrate China into the global economy.
As US Senator, Biden played a key role in developing policies that facilitated China’s integration into the global economy, including its accession to the WTO. Biden was fond of bragging about how close he was to Chinese dictator Xi Jinping. As President, during the 2024 campaign, in response to Trump’s criticism of reliance on Chinese commodities, Biden shifted toward a more protectionist stance, implementing tariffs on Chinese goods. For instance, in May 2024, his administration imposed a 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles. But, as with his election-year change on open borders (largely fake at any rate), had Harris been elected, Democrats would have switched back to their longterm goal of enabling the rise of China.
For those who may not know, China is a totalitarian corporate state that not only oppresses the Chinese—the Laobaixing or “old hundred names”—but other ethnic groups, seen in the internment of Uyghurs in concentration camps and the practice of harvesting organs from prisoners and the Falun Gong (the Uyghurs and the Falun Gong are religious minorities in China). As Americans are beginning to find out (why were they kept in the dark about this?) Chinese companies have gained significant influence over the operations and infrastructure of the Panama Canal. And they are very interested in Greenland. In fact, they’re interested in everything.
The handover of the Panama Canal from the US to Panama occurred at the end of 1999. This was under the terms of the Torrijos-Carter Treaty signed in 1977, which saw Carter selling the canal to Panama for one dollar. Since then, China has expanded its economic presence in Panama, particularly through state-linked companies, e.g., Hutchison Whampoa, a Hong Kong-based firm that operates major ports at both ends of the canal. While the Panama Canal itself is not officially part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Panama joined the BRI in 2017, after establishing diplomatic ties with Beijing and cutting ties with Taiwan, thus effectively putting the canal under Chinese control. Since then, China has invested heavily in infrastructure projects in the country, including ports and logistics hubs. China is using economic leverage in our hemisphere to gain strategic influence over one of the world’s most critical maritime assets.
President Donald Trump has recently taken actions to counter China’s influence in Panama. In early 2025, he demanded that Panama return control of the Panama Canal to the United States, citing concerns over Chinese involvement in the canal’s operations. Corporate-state media depicted Trump’s move as an instantiation of his authoritarian personality. However, the pressure Trump exerted led Panama to announce its withdrawal from BRI in February 2025. Moreover, citing national security concerns, Trump is scrutinizing CK Hutchison. These actions are part of a broader strategy by the Trump administration to curb Chinese investment in and influence over strategic global infrastructure.
The corporate-state media has also depicted Trump’s interest in Greenland as an expression of authoritarian desire. What the propagandists do not explain (why would they?) is that China has shown significant interest in Greenland due to potential Arctic shipping lanes, rare earth minerals, and strategic location (i.e., in close proximity to North America and Europe). Chinese companies have attempted to invest in mining projects, particularly for lithium and uranium, which are crucial for global supply chains.
Trump’s interest in Greenland is not a new thing. In 2018, during Trump’s first term, a Chinese state-owned company tried to build three airports in Greenland, raising security concerns in Denmark and the US, which ultimately pressured Greenland to reject the deal. Wary of China’s influence in the Arctic, Trump proposed buying Greenland from Denmark in 2019, though the idea was dismissed by Danish officials. Trump is right to be concerned. China has continued to pursue economic and political influence in Greenland by establishing scientific research stations (i.e., military installations) and infrastructure investments as part of its broader Polar Silk Road initiative, an extension of BRI aimed at increasing China’s presence in the Arctic. Greenland is moreover strategic with respect to Russia. (See Monroe Doctrine 2.0)
Why would the Democratic Party, which claims to represent labor (really public employee unions), aggressively pursue law and policy that makes the United States ever more dependent on China? Why would it promote policy that offshores American manufacturing and other production to China, where commodities are produced under conditions aptly described as slave labor? Why would Democrats, and aligned neoliberals in the Republican Paty (who are thankfully becoming a rare breed in the era of MAGA), undermine the national security of the United States by promoting economic development that allows China to elaborate and modernize its military capabilities?
How is it that progressives still believe Democrats have the interests of workers in mind or concern themselves with the national security threat posed by a totalitarian corporate state with a population comprising nearly twenty percent of the world’s population with a expanding capacity for war-making? Why would a significant proportion of the US populace continue believing that legacy news reporting is telling them truth about what is occurring and what Trump is doing about it?
There has really been only one voice over the last decade who has told Americans the truth about China: Donald Trump. His plan—and this is why he’s putting the spotlight on our hemisphere—is to re-shore and near-shore industry, provide jobs for American workers, and cheaper products manufactured in this hemisphere, thus weakening China’s ability to wage economic and kinetic war on the West.
The Democrats present Russia as the great threat to US security while, along with European elites, antagonize that state by pushing NATO up against its borders (see History and Sides-Taking in the Russo-Ukrainian War; Is War With Russia Inevitable?). They wish to keep alive the Cold War. But the real threat resides the People’s Republic of China and the Islamic Republic of Iran. In the latter, the emerging consensus is that China is the only power that can challenge the “Great Satan.” For its part, China is ramping up investments in Iran, and not only in the energy sector. China seeks a strong presence in Iran, not only in its competition with India (whom Trump is pulling closer), but to counter the West.
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