On Monday, The American Conservative’s Executive Director Curt Mills facilitated a panel at the fourth annual National Conservatism Conference in Washington, D.C. called “Breaking the China Addiction.” Speakers included TAC contributor and economic strategist David Goldman, corporate lawyer and businessman David Harvilicz, President of The American Strategy Group Brian Kennedy, and General Robert Spalding.

Goldman focused on China’s continued dominance in the global south in manufacturing and workforce capabilities in comparison to other countries, particularly the United States. He said, “We are more dependent on Chinese supply chains under President Biden than we ever have been before.”

Goldman noted that China’s “skilled workforce is exploding” rapidly, saying that, for example, six times the number of engineers graduate from Chinese schools as the rest of the world combined. At the rate China is going compared to the United States, it will take trillions of dollars to play a game of catch up with infrastructure and supply chains in the global south. 

Yet, “We have to go all in. Incremental measures will not cut it anymore,” Goldman concluded. 

Harvilicz emphasized how important it is to wake the “Sleeping giant of American ingenuity.” However, this path will be difficult, due to the exorbitant costs of training American workers to perform jobs that can be done at a much lower cost in China. Nevertheless, he suggested the creation of a “Made in America mandate” that would ensure all energy transformers to be made in the United States. Such a move would be beneficial to America and its citizens in the long run.

Harvilicz also suggested a “Patriot Pledge,” which would mandate that presidential appointees agree to a lifetime ban of working for CCP-related brands. “We didn’t beat the Soviets with timid gestures,” he said.

Kennedy cautioned that we “are at war with Communist China” and that conservatives should not be disillusioned by “political optimism” going forward to the November election. Like the panelists before him, he emphasized how reliant the United States is on China and how the latter is blatantly serious about becoming “the master race of this earth.” He said that America’s heavy dependence has made the country “engaged in a national suicide.”

Spalding made a callback to Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, which said, “Never attempt to win by force, what can be won by deception.” An example of Chinese deception is through TikTok, which Spalding claimed is feeding America’s youth misinformation subversively. This is the “digital currency” with which the Chinese can wage a second Cold War. 

Finally, Spalding warned that the only political enemy that matters, more so than the Democratic party Republicans will face in November, is the Chinese Communist Party, and America must do all that is necessary to prepare itself against it.