THE WASHINGTON UNION PAPERS: NO. 23

FIXING AMERICA’S SUPPLY CHAIN & ENDING DEPENDENCE ON CHINA

To the People of the United States,

A nation that cannot produce for itself is a nation held hostage. It is a nation whose prosperity is borrowed, whose security is compromised, whose very future is dictated by forces beyond its borders. No great power in history has ever maintained its strength while depending on a rival for its most essential goods. No civilization has ever endured while outsourcing its economic lifeblood to those who do not share its interests. And yet, America has done precisely this. We have handed over the means of our own production, the foundation of our independence, to foreign powers that do not hesitate to exploit our complacency. We have not been conquered by force, but by our own shortsightedness, by the slow erosion of self-reliance, by the relentless pursuit of profit at the expense of national strength.

A nation that outsources its strength, that surrenders its industries, that places its economic security in the hands of its greatest competitor, is a nation on its knees. And make no mistake—this is not the natural order of things. This is not the result of inevitability. It is the result of choices, of policies designed not to uplift American workers, but to enrich multinational corporations who saw no allegiance to the people who built this country. It is the result of decades of political negligence, of leaders who allowed factories to close, who watched as entire towns were hollowed out, who assured us that outsourcing was merely an evolution of the market, when in reality, it was a betrayal of American industry. They told us that globalization would bring prosperity to all, but what it brought was dependence. What it brought was vulnerability. What it brought was an America that, in a time of crisis, found itself scrambling for basic supplies, unable to provide for its own people, begging foreign manufacturers to meet its needs.

For too long, America has been content to let its factories rust, its workers be displaced, and its industries be dismantled in favor of foreign production—most dangerously, in favor of China. We were told that outsourcing manufacturing would lower costs, that it would drive innovation, that it would allow us to focus on high-level services while others took care of production. But what has it truly brought us? It has given us empty warehouses where factories once stood, struggling communities where industry once thrived, and an economic system that enriches foreign adversaries while American workers are left behind.

It has allowed China to tighten its grip on global supply chains, to embed itself in industries that once belonged to us, to position itself as the gatekeeper of critical materials, technologies, and infrastructure that we can no longer live without. This is not partnership—this is economic subjugation, and it is a danger that must be confronted before it is too late.

We have traded self-reliance for short-term profit, independence for convenience, and national security for the illusion of cheap goods. But the cost of those goods is not truly measured in dollars—it is measured in lost jobs, in shuttered factories, in the strategic leverage we have handed to a rival superpower. Every time we choose foreign production over domestic investment, we are not just making an economic decision—we are making a national security decision. We are choosing to be vulnerable. We are choosing to let another nation dictate the terms of our economy. We are choosing dependency over strength. And history has shown, time and time again, that a dependent nation is not a powerful nation—it is a nation waiting to be broken.

We have allowed an adversary to weave itself into the very fabric of our supply chains, to infiltrate every level of our economic infrastructure, until the price of a single disruption sends shockwaves through our economy. We have seen what happens when supply chains collapse, when critical industries grind to a halt because we can no longer produce what we need on our own soil. We have seen it in the shortages of semiconductors, in the reliance on foreign pharmaceuticals, in the supply chain bottlenecks that have exposed our economic fragility. And we have seen how China wields its economic power—not as a neutral supplier, but as a strategic actor, willing to cut off resources, to manipulate markets, to use its dominance as leverage against those who challenge it. This is not a risk we can afford to take any longer. This is not a game we can afford to play.

And now, as we stand on the precipice of global realignment, we must ask ourselves: Will we continue down this path of dependency, or will we reclaim our power, our industry, and our future? Will we allow another generation to grow up in a country that no longer makes what it needs, that no longer controls its own economic destiny? Or will we take back what is ours—our factories, our supply chains, our independence? Will we choose to invest in American workers, in American innovation, in American resilience? Or will we continue to rely on a system that has already failed us, that has left us weaker, that has put us at the mercy of a competitor that does not wish us success? The choice before us is not one of mere economics. It is a choice of survival.

It is a choice of whether we will once again become a nation that stands on its own feet, or whether we will remain shackled to the interests of those who do not share our values, our vision, or our future.

Fixing America’s supply chain is not just an economic necessity—it is a matter of national survival. A nation that cannot manufacture its own essential goods, that cannot sustain itself without the approval of foreign suppliers, that cannot act without first calculating how it will be perceived in Beijing, is a nation that has already surrendered its sovereignty. We have allowed ourselves to become reliant on an economic system that prioritizes global efficiency over national security, that rewards outsourcing over domestic production, that treats American workers as expendable while enriching foreign competitors. This is not just unsustainable—it is a betrayal of our founding principles, of our ability to stand on our own, of the very essence of economic independence.

China does not control our supply chains because we lack the resources or the talent to produce for ourselves. It does not dominate global manufacturing because its workers are more skilled, nor because its industries are more innovative. It controls them because we allowed it to. We surrendered our economic sovereignty not out of necessity, but out of greed and political complacency. We handed over the foundation of our industries, piece by piece, in pursuit of lower costs and higher corporate profits, ignoring the long-term consequences in favor of short-term gains. We convinced ourselves that economic interdependence with a rival power was a strength, that it would lead to stability, that free trade alone would ensure prosperity. But now, as we stand amidst supply chain crises, economic blackmail, and geopolitical instability, we see the truth—what we called efficiency was, in reality, vulnerability. What we called partnership was, in reality, dependence.

It controls them because our leaders, in their blind pursuit of globalization, sacrificed the American factory worker at the altar of cheap labor. They dismantled industries that had been the backbone of our economy for generations, replacing them with promises of a service-based economy that would supposedly sustain us. They told us that outsourcing was progress, that free trade without safeguards would benefit all, that it did not matter where goods were made so long as they were cheap. But cheap came at a price—at the cost of our own self-reliance, at the cost of communities left to wither when factories closed, at the cost of an entire generation of workers discarded in favor of offshoring.

It controls them because corporations, eager to boost quarterly earnings, abandoned their own countrymen in favor of offshore production. The decision to move manufacturing abroad was not made because America lacked capability, but because cutting labor costs and increasing margins became more valuable than national resilience. They sold off the industrial heart of this country not because it was necessary, but because it was profitable. They prioritized the wealth of shareholders over the well-being of workers, and now, when supply chains crumble, when factories overseas shut down, when ports are bottlenecked, those same corporations come begging for bailouts, pleading for solutions to the crisis they helped create. They built their empires on outsourced production, and in doing so, they built America’s dependence on foreign supply chains.

And now, when a global crisis erupts, when supply chains break, when semiconductor shortages cripple our industries, when pharmaceuticals and medical supplies are delayed, when critical technologies are held hostage by a foreign government, we find ourselves at the mercy of forces beyond our control. We scramble for answers. We watch as our automakers shut down production because they cannot access the chips needed to build cars. We see hospitals facing shortages of critical medications because our pharmaceutical supply chains stretch across an ocean to a nation that could cut us off at a moment’s notice. We stand helpless as industries that should be pillars of American strength buckle under the weight of their reliance on an adversary.

This is not strength. A strong nation does not rely on its competitors to produce its weapons, its medicines, its infrastructure. A strong nation does not sit idle while another power dictates the flow of its critical materials. A strong nation does not trade security for convenience, does not sacrifice independence for cost-cutting, does not allow itself to be placed in a position where a single decision from a foreign government could bring its economy to a grinding halt.

This is not stability. We have constructed an economic house of cards, one that topples at the slightest disruption. We have built an infrastructure of dependency, where a pandemic, a trade war, or a diplomatic conflict can throw our supply chains into chaos. We have ceded control over the very resources that define modern economic and military strength—rare earth minerals, microchips, advanced manufacturing capabilities—because we chose to chase short-term profits instead of securing long-term resilience. And now, we face the consequences.

This is economic servitude. It is the slow erosion of national sovereignty, the transformation of a once self-sufficient powerhouse into a nation dependent on its greatest rival for the most essential goods. It is the position of a country that no longer determines its own economic destiny, but must instead negotiate, plead, and compromise in order to access the materials and technologies it once produced for itself. It is the reality of a nation that abandoned its own industrial might, that allowed foreign interests to dictate the terms of trade, that placed profit above principle, and now finds itself vulnerable, exposed, and at risk of losing not just its supply chains, but its very position as a global leader.

But let it be known: we are not beyond saving. We are not beyond repair. The resources, the talent, the ingenuity—they are still here, waiting for the moment when America decides to reclaim its strength. The question before us is not whether we can break free from this dependency—it is whether we have the will to do so. It is whether we will continue to kneel before those who control our supply chains or whether we will rise, reclaim, and rebuild the industries that made this nation great. The choice is ours. And history will remember whether we had the courage to take it.

But let it be known: America is not destined to be dependent. We do not have to accept weakness as our fate. We have within us the power to rebuild, to reclaim, to reestablish ourselves as the industrial powerhouse that once defined the world. We have the workers, the engineers, the scientists, the manufacturers, the innovators. What we need is the will. What we need is leadership that values production over speculation, self-reliance over dependency, and American workers over the bottom lines of multinational corporations. We need policies that do not merely encourage domestic manufacturing but demand it, that do not merely incentivize supply chain diversification but enforce it, that do not merely recognize the problem but commit to solving it with the urgency it requires.

Ending our dependence on China does not mean closing ourselves off to the world. It does not mean abandoning global trade or retreating into isolation. It means refusing to be economically blackmailed. It means ensuring that our pharmaceutical drugs, our microchips, our steel, our rare earth minerals, our defense technologies—our very foundation of economic and national security—are produced here, on American soil, by American hands. It means holding corporations accountable for the choices they make, for the workers they abandon, for the factories they close, for the foreign supply chains they have built at the expense of national security. It means reshoring production not as an act of nostalgia, but as an act of necessity.

For decades, we have been told that outsourcing was the path to prosperity, that moving our industries overseas would make us stronger, that free trade without safeguards would benefit all. We were told that it did not matter who made our goods, so long as they were cheap. But we have paid the price for this deception. We have watched as ghost towns replaced manufacturing hubs, as once-thriving industries withered away, as China amassed economic leverage over every sector of our economy. We have watched as our industrial core has been hollowed out, as our supply chains have become fragile, as our ability to provide for ourselves has been compromised. And now, when we need resilience, we find ourselves scrambling, vulnerable to the decisions of a foreign government that does not share our interests, that does not respect our values, that does not hesitate to use economic power as a weapon.

Let it be remembered that when America was faced with the choice between continued dependence and renewed strength, we chose strength—not out of convenience, not out of hesitation, but out of an unshakable conviction that no great nation can stand on its own if it cannot provide for itself. Let it be written that we did not bow before the forces of globalization that sought to strip us of our industry and sell our sovereignty to the highest bidder. Let it be inscribed into history that we did not allow our industries to be controlled by foreign adversaries, that we did not allow our workers to be discarded like obsolete machinery, that we did not allow our nation’s fate to be dictated by the whims of another. We were not a people content to watch our manufacturing power fade into memory, nor were we a nation willing to kneel before those who sought to make us economically subservient. We chose to rise.

Let it be known that when the time came to rebuild, to reclaim, to renew our commitment to self-sufficiency, we did not hesitate. We did not falter. We did not wait for the future to be decided for us—we seized it. We refused to be beggars at the table of foreign manufacturers. We refused to be at the mercy of supply chains controlled by those who did not share our interests, who did not respect our sovereignty, who did not hesitate to leverage our dependence against us. We recognized that economic security is national security, that a nation without control over its own production is a nation poised for decline. And so we took back what was ours—not in whispered negotiations, not in timid reforms, but in decisive action, in bold policies, in a sweeping renewal of the American industrial machine.

The time for waiting is over. The time for action is now. The time to bring our industries home, to restore our supply chains, to ensure that no foreign power holds our economic fate in its hands, is at hand. No longer will we accept the lie that cheap goods are worth the price of dependency. No longer will we stand idly by while corporations chase profits overseas at the expense of American workers. No longer will we allow our future to be written by those who see this nation as nothing more than a marketplace to be exploited. We are not a colony of global capital. We are not a pawn in the economic ambitions of other nations. We are the United States of America, and we will no longer outsource our power, our labor, or our destiny.

And when history looks back upon this moment, let it say that we were not weak. Let it say that we did not cower in the face of dependency, that we did not waver when the stakes were highest. Let it say that we chose to build, to produce, to secure our future with our own hands, to stand not as a debtor to foreign factories, but as a builder of our own prosperity. Let it say that we rose from the ashes of economic neglect and reclaimed what was ours by right—not through conquest, not through coercion, but through the sweat and ingenuity of our own people.

Let it say that in this moment, we did not just fix our supply chains—we reclaimed the destiny of our nation itself. We did not simply react to the failures of the past—we forged the blueprint for a future where America is beholden to no one but itself. We reignited the furnaces of industry, we resurrected the spirit of the American worker, we restored the principle that a free people must never rely on their rivals to sustain them. Let history record that when we were faced with the choice between surrendering our economic future or taking back what was ours, we did not hesitate—we took it back with both hands and never looked back.