Getting tired of hearing about China?

Now we have floating surveillance balloons over our country. We are yet to know for sure what this is about but time will tell. China is probably scouting out the next land or business purchase. They may have come up with an easy way to determine which military bases have available adjacent land. It doesn’t matter if it’s for sale they can come up with enough money to buy the property. All they have to do is to keep piling up the money from everything they sell to the United States.

Alarms went off in Washington when the Fufeng Group, a Chinese agricultural company, bought 300 acres of land and set up a milling plant last spring in Grand Forks, ND. The plant is a 20-minute drive from an Air Force base that, according to North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven, hosts a space mission that “will form the backbone of U.S. military communications across the globe.”

Ten years ago Smithfield Foods was purchased for $4.72 billion by China’s leading pork producer, Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. (now WH Group Ltd.) 

China has 1.5 billion people which require a lot of food. China would love to gain as much of our farmland as possible to gain more control of our food production. This is one area where China really needs us – our agricultural exports to them increased by over 27% from 2020 to 2021. They would need us if they can gain control of our farmland. It’s also a plus for them if they can have it close to our military bases. This provides a two-fold benefit; in the middle of the cornfield, they can watch everything we are doing or even attempt to thwart what we are doing.

The U.S. trade summary reveals the depth of our trade with China. 

In 2021, U.S. exports to China were $151.1 billion, a 21.4% ($26.6 billion) increase from 2020; U.S. imports from China were $506.4 billion, a 16.5% ($71.6 billion) increase; and the trade deficit with China was $355.3 billion, a 14.5% ($45.0 billion) increase from $310.3 billion in 2020.

China was the United States’ third-largest trade partner in2021. 

In 2021, 8.6% of total U.S. exports of $1.8 trillion were exported to China and 17.9% of total U.S. imports of $2.8 trillion were imported from China.

Mechanical appliances, sound recorders and TV sets were the most traded commodity sectors. In the last five years, U.S. exports of those commodities show an upward trend from $25 billion in 2017 to $36.1 billion in 2021. The percentages of imports of those commodities from China out of total imports from the World are impressive with 37.0% in 2017 and 29.3% in 2021.

In 2021, U.S. exports of agricultural products to China continue to show an upward trend. In 2021, U.S. exports of agricultural products were $31.6 billion, an increase of 27.5% ($6.8 billion) from $24.8 billion in 2020.

In 2021, China remained the major source of U.S. imports of textiles. In 2021, U.S. imports of $50.3 billion of textiles from China constituted 32.6% of the total U.S. imports of textiles.

Additionally, in 2021, China remained the major source of U.S. imports of furniture, bedding, lamps, toys, games, sports equipment, paint and other miscellaneous manufactured Items. In 2021, the U.S. imports of $68.5 billion of miscellaneous manufactured items from China constituted 53.2% of total U.S. imports of those commodities.

What can we do about China? Try to buy products not made in China. You have to shop but it’s possible. Shrinking the cash flow to China is crucial to reducing their growing economic and military power. By all means, please do not sell them your land. 

Dr. Glenn Mollette is an author and his column is published in over 600 publications in all 50 states.