The United States has imported more than $9 trillion worth of goods from China since it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. During that time, the U.S. lost more than five million manufacturing jobs as industrial and manufacturing plants closed and good middle-class jobs were shipped off to China and the rest of the world.
When President Richard Nixon visited Beijing in 1972, China was an impoverished country that could barely feed its own population. Exports as a percentage of GDP stood at only 3.1% and totaled a mere $3.5 billion. Life expectancy at birth was only 59 years for the average citizen. GDP per capita was an abysmal $130, and ordinary citizens had to rely on the Communist Party to assign state-controlled housing. The middle class did not exist.
By contrast, the United States in 1972 was thriving. GDP per capita stood at over $6,000, while life expectancy reached 71 years. A record 61% of Americans enjoyed middle-class incomes, while nearly two-thirds of Americans owned their own home. U.S exports of $71 billion that year dwarfed China’s by more than 20 times. But 1972 was also the first year in its modern history that the U.S. began running the large and persistent trade deficits that have diminished our middle class, left us dangerously dependent on imports, and eventually enabled China’s economic and military rise.
How America lost its industrial edge
For example, America last year produced 82 million tons of crude steel, a mere fraction of the 980 million tons produced by China. U.S. plants produced roughly 500,000 tons of aluminum, barely one percent of the 45 million tons churned out by Chinese factories. While American assembly lines rolled out around 10.5 million cars and trucks last year, Chinese assembly lines are rolling out more than 31 million cars annually, in addition to exporting a full range of parts.
China’s rise − aided and abetted by elites in Washington − has taken its toll on Ohio and the United States. The Buckeye State has lost approximately one-in-three manufacturing jobs since 1999, while wage gains have persistently failed to keep pace with productivity. Today, not even 50% of Ohioans are considered middle class. Life expectancy at birth in Ohio has stalled at 74.5 years, an improvement of only three years since 1972. Meanwhile, nearly three-quarters of China’s urban population is considered middle income, and life expectancy now stands at 79. While roughly two-thirds of Ohioans today still own their own homes, that figure is more than 90% in China.
Economic dependence becomes a security risk
American and Chinese industrial capacity carry real national security consequences. China in 2024 attracted nearly 60% of global shipbuilding orders and fielded the world’s largest navy, operating 234 warships compared with 219 for the U.S. Navy. China today controls more than 90% of global refining capacity for rare earths, which are critical for the production of missile guidance systems, satellites, and a wide range of military hardware. Meanwhile, a 2024 study found that China controls more than 90% of penicillin active pharmaceutical ingredients used in the United States, putting even basic health care at risk.
Since taking power in 2012, President Xi Jinping has prioritized the development of a highly independent economy that does not have to rely heavily on imports in case of conflict. China today not only possesses the industrial manufacturing base to wage a long-term war, but it has also invested heavily in the renewable and coal power generation needed to ride out catastrophic oil supply disruptions like those happening now in the Strait of Hormuz.
China’s success is a perfect example of how industrial planning can deliver economic prosperity and support national security. We need to rebuild our middle class and regain economic self-sufficiency. By crafting effective tariff policies and ramping up trade and currency monitoring and enforcement, we can roll back China’s encroachment on the very industries that underwrite our national security and provide Ohioans the real shot at middle-class prosperity they once enjoyed.
Charles Shor is the former president and CEO of Duro Bag and founder of the Charles L. Shor Foundation for Epilepsy Research.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: China rose while America lost its middle class | Opinion
Reporting by Charles Shor, Opinion contributor / Cincinnati Enquirer
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