Tangled and Drained: How China’s Tenacles Are Bleeding America

No great power has ever fed its foe like this. But the U.S. is entangled in the CCP’s web—importing their goods, investing its capital, and exporting its knowledge.

•Products: Since China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001, the U.S. has accrued more than $5 trillion in trade deficits. Call it what it is: subsidizing your adversary.

•Capital: American investors have injected over $500 billion into China since 2001. Meanwhile, China’s investments in the U.S. have been significantly smaller, strategically targeted, and often aligned with national priorities. Essentially, America has funded the rise of its primary global rival.

•People: In the last two decades, over 2 million Chinese students have studied in American institutions. Approximately three-quarters return to China equipped not just with degrees, but also critical knowledge, influential networks, and strategic insights that directly enhance China’s global aspirations.

Without this American support, China could not have ascended to its current global prominence. However, the CCP has consistently demonstrated that it intends to remain an ideological, strategic, and military adversary to the United States.

Although certain sectors and individuals profit from this interconnectedness, America overall has experienced substantial net losses. Those benefiting from the current arrangements consistently downplay or deny this reality.

Breaking free from China’s grip will undoubtedly be challenging, given how deeply the CCP has embedded itself into American economic and social structures. Disentanglement isn’t an option—it’s the last exit before CCP China takes the wheel.