Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

A Modest Suggestion

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Dick Hall-Sizemore
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by Dick Hall-Sizemore

Gov. Glenn Youngkin has taken a tough stance toward the Chinese. He has prohibited state agencies from using the TikTok platform. He wants to ban the use of TikTok by Virginia residents under 18. He championed legislation prohibiting the sale of Virginia farmland to Chinese buyers. Finally, he scuttled the location of a major electric car battery factory in Southside Virginia because one of the owners was a Chinese company.

The Governor is correct in his concern about the Chinese government. That country poses a major threat to the United States. But let’s be honest — none of those actions will have any effect at all on the Chinese government.

If the governor wants to go beyond political grandstanding and issuing toothless edicts, he could take the next step: prohibit state agencies from purchasing anything made or assembled in China. The large appetite of American consumers over recent decades for products made in China was undoubtedly a major factor in the growth of its economy and power.

Granted, the loss of the Virginia government agency market may not be much more than a drop in the ocean of the Chinese economy. However, it would be a substantive step by the governor. He could also use his “bully pulpit” to encourage Virginia citizens and businesses to avoid buying and selling products made in China. Constitutionally, that is as far as he could go, but these steps would put some substance behind his calls of concern.

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16 responses to “A Modest Suggestion”

  1. Wahoo'74 Avatar
    Wahoo’74

    Wholeheartedly agree.

  2. David Wojick Avatar
    David Wojick

    China is the industrial center of the world. They produce more electricity than the US, EU and UK combined and most of it goes for industrial not residential use. So I doubt an agency could actually function buying nothing made at least in part in China.

    I am just doing a study on an unnoticed case of this. Virtually all the lithium-ion batteries in the world use specially processed graphite made only in China. And virtually all the electronic and electrical devices that use batteries use lithium-ion ones, from cell phones to EVs.

    You might want to narrow your scope a bit. But if Virginia got into a trade war with China is might not work out too well.

    1. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
      Dick Hall-Sizemore

      The executive order could be structured to prohibit the purchase of products made in China, unless no other source were available.

      1. David Wojick Avatar
        David Wojick

        Good! The question then becomes what China might do in retaliation? For example are there VA manufacturers who get critical supplies from China? Trade wars tend to be nasty critters.

        1. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
          Dick Hall-Sizemore

          I agree. That is why the governor will probably be satisfied with his meaningless actions. Of course, the stopping of the plant in Pittsylania Co. was meaningless to the Chinese (they went to Michigan instead), but it did have consequences for Southside.

  3. CJBova Avatar
    CJBova

    Remember the Chinese connections in these stories? https://www.baconsrebellion.com/happened-jerry-peng-questions-tranlin-inc/

    https://www.baconsrebellion.com/where-did-140-million-in-greentech-money-go/

  4. ken Avatar
    ken

    What such action will do is prevent the tentacles of the PLA/CCP kraken from infesting Virginians’ lives — protecting us and our infrastructure. It will protect us more than you know.

    The PLA/CCP stole every OPM personnel file… with TikTok it can now infiltrate those households of USG workers with vulnerabilities detailed in those files…. helping it to know who to target.
    Every Chinese person & enterprise is required to spy on and report on any/all contact with US citz and enterprises… thus the need to keep ChiCom companies away from USMIL facilities, as those companies are spying on us.
    Finally – every foreign business must share its proprietary secrets with the PLA/CCP when working with a Chinese company.

    …..just a sampling of the threat and how to mitigate it in our little part of the world….. we can’t stop China Joe from his undermining of the US homeland until November.

    Look what the Chinese T-com towers did with the spy balloon….

  5. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    Would it be wrong to call this the Conservative version of virtue signaling?

    I think Mr. Wojick makes some very valid points about the Chinese and their place and our place in the economic world.

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      Are you calling Dick a conservative? But yes, these efforts are mostly just virtue signaling. More effective, but equally problematic, are tariffs intended to protect and promote domestic production. Also bills like the Chips Act or whatever it was called intended to become an industrial policy to promote (subsidize) domestic output.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        NO! I’m saying that Youngkin is… and yes, he might be “virtue signaling” just like those progressives do!
        but tariffs are supposed to be done after it has been determined that the foreign production is not “fair” as opposed
        to the fact that they are CHINA although I admit we’ve done that with other countries like Russia and NK.

  6. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    “Foot, meet bullet. Bullet, this is foot.”

    How about a tariff on Chinese goods entering Virginia ports? That’ll get ‘em!

    I’m surprised he didn’t suggest a surcharge on State agencies buying goods made in China. It would be in keeping with conservative understanding of economics.

    It’s a good thing we have the Trans-Pac Partnership, ain’t it?

    https://www.cato.org/blog/5-years-later-united-states-still-paying-tpp-blunder

  7. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    Dick – Have you ever used Tik-Tok? Have you read anything about it?

    If you had used the app or researched the app I suspect you wouldn’t claim Youngkin’s decisions were “toothless edicts”.

    Here’s a good primer:

    https://www.deseret.com/2022/11/24/23467181/difference-between-tik-tok-in-china-and-the-us

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      The most important thing to recognize about Tik Tok is that is is just software and the things that it does could and are easily replicated in other software with different names.

      If you want to regulate – you have to regulate what Tik Tok does – for all software – not just Tik Tok.

      1. DJRippert Avatar
        DJRippert

        Tik Tok is not “just software”. It’s software with a very strong AI component. That AI component means the application changes as it is used on a person-by-person basis. This happens through data without requiring any changes to the underlying software.

        Tik Tok is produced by Chinese company ByteDance.

        As far as having to regulate all software the same way – that’s just not true.

        Tik Tok has been banned on state-supplied devices in about 1/2 of US states.

        Beyond that, “But Democratic U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, of Illinois has co-sponsored legislation to prohibit TikTok from operating in the U.S. altogether, and the measure approved by Congress in December had the support of Democratic U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.”

        https://apnews.com/article/technology-politics-united-states-government-china-privacy-26b0ee0d4c8421fa7f58b06f76651dc1

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          RIght… but it is something that could be replicated easily ? Is it Tik TOk we should be concerned about
          or the functions it is programmed to do that other software could also be designed to do?

          You a tech guy DJ.. this is not a hard question.

  8. Joe Jeeva Abbate Avatar
    Joe Jeeva Abbate

    Traditionally, conservative Libertarians have favored open trade, a healthy economy, and cost savings for the tax payer. Has this been the result of our trade war with China?

    The U.S. Council on Foreign Relations has analyzed several studies and concluded that the cost of tariffs and the trade war with China is still adding up.

    Their studies note, “Several studies have examined the cost of the Section 301 tariffs on the U.S. economy. For example, economists Mary Amiti, Stephen J. Redding, and David Weinstein showed that by the end of the first year that the tariffs were in place, U.S. real income declined by $1.4 billion per month. More recently, trade analysts Tori Smith and Tom Lee from the American Action Forum found that U.S. consumers largely bore the brunt of the tariffs, paying a total of $48 billion—with half of this figure paid by U.S. firms that rely on intermediate inputs from China. A recent report by the United States International Trade Commission agreed that the cost of the tariffs was passed through to U.S. importers.”

    The CFR report concluded that, “The evidence is clear—the Trump tariffs have failed and the costs on the U.S. economy continue to pile up. Examining all the comments submitted to the USTR for the Section 301 review confirms that harm caused by the tariffs is widespread, significant, and counterproductive to U.S. goals to discipline China’s behavior. Instead of propping up Trump’s failed China policy, the Biden administration should restart a dialogue with China to directly address the source of trade tensions, and bring formal trade complaints to the World Trade Organization to apply pressure and generate international judicial rulings that China will take more seriously than unilateral U.S. tariffs.”

    It appears that this trade war has punished the American economy, the U.S. taxpayer and U.S. industries more than China.

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