MARK SIMON: Trump’s Trade Clash With China Exposing Cracks In Communist Mirage
After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, it became unfashionable to call communism a global threat. Intellectuals, once kept in check by tough leaders like former President Ronald Reagan and former British Prime Minister…
After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, it became unfashionable to call communism a global threat. Intellectuals, once kept in check by tough leaders like former President Ronald Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — who faced a Soviet Union bent on global domination — roamed free like an invasive species without predators. The Soviet Union, like the Third Reich, had one grim utility: It forced serious leaders to confront real-world threats, not ivory-tower fantasies about a world without “bad people.”
When the wall came down, the West grew complacent, electing leaders like former President Bill Clinton who thrived in a world seemingly free of serious adversaries. Sure, there were Middle Eastern terrorists, but they didn’t threaten the global order.
Into this vacuum of moral seriousness strode the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), trailed by a parade of profiteering Western businessmen and women who dismissed the word “communist” in the CCP’s name as a quaint relic. For years, they sold a fantasy: China wasn’t communist, just a quirky government with capitalist zeal. That fantasy ended with Xi Jinping’s rise in 2012.
Over the past 13 years, Xi has exposed the CCP’s true face: an aggressive regime hell-bent on driving the U.S. and Western powers out of Asia. China has weaponized its economic advantages, like its 90% control of global rare earth processing, to coerce U.S. policy — both abroad and domestically. The CCP’s espionage, at levels that would make Cold War Soviets blush (remember the 2023 spy balloon incident), and its interference in U.S. politics through disinformation campaigns on platforms like X, reveal a regime that demands silence from critics. Its “wolf warrior” diplomacy — sanctioning nations like Australia for questioning COVID origins — underscores a core principle: No one, especially in the U.S., may criticize the CCP. Most damningly, Xi’s communism has done what communism always does: drive progress into the toilet. China’s economic indicators are crumbling: