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The continuing erosion of America’s manufacturing capacity and its deepening dependence on China pose unacceptable risks to our nation’s health, prosperity, capacity for self-defense, and ability to support friends and allies. Although these dangers are more widely acknowledged today than they were only a few years ago, the steps taken to address them thus far have been insufficient. A more comprehensive and coordinated approach is urgently required.
At the height of the COVID pandemic, many Americans learned for the first time that the manufacture of personal protective equipment and the active pharmaceutical ingredients used in many life-saving medications largely has been outsourced to China. Factory shutdowns, snarled supply chains, and hoarding by Chinese companies also contributed to a global semiconductor shortage that forced cutbacks in U.S. auto manufacturing. China today dominates the production of many of the rare earth minerals needed to make the products that will power a global energy transition. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials have threatened repeatedly to weaponize the supply chains they control, warning that they could suspend critical exports to countries that refuse to do their bidding. If nothing changes and Beijing someday follows through on these threats, the effects on our society and economy could be catastrophic.
The war in Ukraine has revealed a further vulnerability: U.S. defense contractors lack the capacity to rapidly ramp up production of everything from missiles to radios. To make matters worse, some of the components and materials needed to manufacture this equipment are imported from China.
