State of Affairs

The United States is under threat. The Free World is under threat. Our liberties and way of life is under threat.

Now is the time to wake up. As Americans, we have been privileged to not think about military conflict, but the last few years have opened Pandora’s Box and flooded the world with a greatpower competition between the US and China, which threatens to derail the post-World War II Rules-Based-International- Order on which modern society was built.

But who is threatening us? The People’s Republic of China.

Those who follow State of Affairs may recall the numerous columns I’ve written in which I call this competition “The New Cold War”, and I received quite a few eyerolls. Yet, this last week, we’ve learned about a giant Chinese spy balloon which was working on reconnaissance efforts over US and Canadian missile silos.

This spy balloon comes at a time where Chinese rhetoric promising an invasion on the island nation of Taiwan has reached a fever pitch. This spy balloon comes at a time where China “civilian fishing vessels” are invading Filipino territorial waters and using the cannons and firearms mounted on those “civilian fishing vessels” to force fisherman out of their own territorial waters. This spy balloon comes as China competes with other nations for influence across southeast Asia and Africa. This spy balloon comes as China works to increase its nuclear arsenal and is actively working to strip influence from the United States.

Now is the time to put politics away. We are Americans. This is not the time for a pointless “Republican v. Democrat” political battle. This is the time for all of us to prepare and stand ready to defend our freedoms, because if we don’t, no one will.

The United States is a country that was built on the idea of freedom and liberty. While we have not always done a good job of making sure this promise of freedom and liberty was secure for all Americans, we have grown from our mistakes. So much so, that we allow LGBTQ+ activists to wave communist flags and wear clothing depicting communist leaders who specifically targeted and persecuted the LGBTQ+ community. We have grown so much that we allow people to make baseless conspiracy theory claims, and when they reach their peak causing an attack on our most important government building, we throw our hands in the air and say “eh”. You see, in the United States, we all have the constitutional right to be outlandish, ridiculous, and dumb. It is perhaps our greatest weakness, especially now.

China is a country which is actively – according to the United States Congress and White House for both the Trump and Biden Administrations – committing genocide against the Uyghur Muslims in Xinxiang, a province to the west of China Proper. China is a country where the people do not necessarily have freedom of movement. They certainly do not have freedom of speech, and the leadership of China believes they have the right to be in charge of the whole world because their system of order works efficiently for those in positions of power.

China is increasingly becoming belligerent. We are at what I like to call, a “sputnik moment”. Because, I don’t know about you, but I feel violated. Imagine if someone was taking pictures of you while in an intimate moment without your knowledge or consent. That is effectively what happened when this spy balloon flew over the United States, and to hear that it happened at least three times in the last few years is even more disgusting.

So, lets drop the baseless conspiracy theories and drop the political aspect of this situation. Because the United States is actively locked in this great-power struggle. Thanks to the US eliminating the Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2017, we were left vulnerable and susceptible to China and lost great economic opportunities to contain their economy. This is a struggle that will not end in a few months. This is not a struggle that will end in a few years, and if both sides are not careful, this struggle may erupt into full-scale armed conflict. Full-scale armed conflict is something China is actively promising to do with Taiwan – a free nation.

This great-power conflict will have radical impacts on the future. But, this spy balloon alone was not the biggest threat to American life. Tik Tok is. China uses it – actively- to collect information on individual Americans and it taps into a cellular device’s GPS to track the movement of Americans, like in military bases and classified areas. So, if you have Tik Tok on your phone, delete it. Because, if you’re talking badly about the US’ response to the balloon but have Tik Tok on your phone, you are more of a danger to our national security than this balloon ever could be.

Now is the time to wake up to the China threat. Because we are locked in a new Cold War. This is a conflict that is more unstable than what we had with the Soviet Union. All Americans should be prepared for what may come next.