OPINION:
For too long, American workers have shouldered the burden of a trade policy that rewards Chinese Communist Party interests over our own. Despite promises by the Biden/Harris administration that “we’re not going to let China flood our market,” they took more than three years to increase tariffs on just a handful of products while a terrible trade deficit with China continued to grow.
The cost of inaction is dangerous. The Coalition for a Prosperous America, a national nonprofit organization representing domestic producers, said in a 2023 report that 3.8 million American jobs had been lost to China since 2001, including more than 60,000 jobs in South Carolina, the state I represent in Congress.
On the national security front, our reliance on China paints an equally grim picture.
Overall, China is the second-largest source of imports for the United States, next to Mexico, and the primary global manufacturer of cellphones, toys, computers and other products.
China controls 60% of the worldwide production and 85% of the processing capacity of critical minerals, such as cobalt, lithium and rare earth elements. These minerals are necessary to produce medical imaging, smartphones and modern military technology.
During a 2023 House Oversight and Accountability subcommittee hearing, Isabel Munilla, deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Energy, said, “For the 31 of 50 minerals designated by [the U.S. Geological Survey] in its critical minerals list, the U.S. relies on other countries for more than 50% of our requirements and rely entirely on foreign sources for more than a dozen of these minerals.”
The Department of Defense said, “Continued U.S. reliance on foreign sources for rare earth products poses a risk to national security. The U.S. and most of the world depend on China for many rare earth elements.”
Another critical sector dominated by China is the glass fiber industry. Widely used in electronics, industrial, aerospace, defense and other industries, China’s global market share had increased to 70% in 2023.
AGY in Aiken, South Carolina, is the only remaining American-owned and -operated specialty glass fiber manufacturer. If we do not do more to support AGY and similar firms, we could soon find ourselves wholly relying on China for yet another strategic good.
No matter your party affiliation, the truth is becoming painfully obvious: The American worker is being subverted by foreign adversaries, and jobs are being lost. The U.S. is becoming increasingly reliant on China for products critical to domestic survival, national defense and more.
President Trump has long recognized this problem. In 2020, he said, “China raided our factories, offshored our jobs, gutted our industries, stole our intellectual property and violated their commitments under the World Trade Organization.”
Last month, Mr. Trump imposed significant tariffs on various goods imported from China as a further commitment to securing American jobs and correcting trade imbalances.
This pressure appears to be working. Last weekend, one-on-one discussions between the U.S. and China produced agreements to dramatically reduce tariffs while establishing a path forward to managing the China challenge.
Unfortunately, even with these tariffs, the lingering Biden-Harris trade policies fall short of protecting our workers.
The Biden administration’s May 2024 announcement that it would increase tariffs on specific Chinese goods was too little, too late. President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act had already allowed billions of taxpayer dollars to go to Chinese firms for the purchase of solar panels and other goods.
As a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees, I know the threat the CCP poses to American jobs and our national security. I join House Republicans in taking real action to protect it.
This is why, in February, I supported the Countering Communist China Act. As the largest, most comprehensive legislation addressing the CCP ever introduced in Congress, this legislation would dramatically diminish trade with China in critical industries, such as telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and military technology.
House Republicans took additional action by passing 28 pieces of legislation in September to further protect the American people, America’s infrastructure and America’s intellectual property from the CCP.
Even more must be done.
Strengthened by the Republican-led trifecta of President Trump, the House of Representatives and the Senate, among the next steps in taking back control of our domestic manufacturing and supply chains to protect the interests of the great American workforce and ensure our nation’s security is the continued implementation of effective trade policy. This means placing tariffs on Chinese goods that undermine our strategic sectors, ending the Biden administration’s disastrous transfer of U.S. taxpayer dollars to Chinese firms through the Inflation Reduction Act, and stopping the flow of U.S. capital into Chinese technology sectors that the CCP seeks to dominate.
I will continue to work hard every day to keep Americans safe, promote well-paying jobs and help strengthen our lives and communities.
I am grateful to represent South Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District.
• Rep. Joe Wilson is a Republican representing South Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District.
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