The Chinese are Coming

What would you say if I told you that you are financing Chinese concentration camps and helping them build ICBM’s? What if I told you that Iran, North Korea and the PLO have benefitted from your financial investments? Despite our Lord’s command to love our enemies, I don’t think that extends to financing their evil intentions. Yet this is exactly what millions of Americans are unwittingly doing through their investment holdings. Private and government retirement plans are buying equities and bonds in Chinese concerns. Many mutual funds and other “basket” investments now include companies that support the Chinese effort to become the next world superpower.

The latest issue of Imprimis has a shocking article detailing the depth to which Americans have gone to finance the Chinese program of world domination. The author of the article is Robert W. Robinson, Jr. Robinson was a member of President Ronald Reagan’s National Security Council. He has served in several other high-level positions that give him a clear view of the subject of Chinese plans. Robinson’s article is quite detailed and perhaps too arcane for general consumption. I will summarize what he wrote hoping to wake readers to the eminent danger.

Robertson begins by explaining how important President Reagan’s economic strategy vis-à-vis the Soviet Union was in precipitating their demise in 1989. Simply put, the USSR was using Western capital to finance their plans for world domination. President Reagan used his power to systematically defund Russia’s efforts. Reagan’s plan involved no guns or missiles, but he destroyed the USSR as completely as if he had ordered a nuclear strike on Moscow.

Robertson believes that America is now in the same position with China that Reagan was with the USSR. Robertson goes into fine detail to show how China has been systematically penetrating the American markets through trade deals, clandestine investment, industrial espionage and outright theft. China relies on American dollars to finance its expansionist policies. China gets those dollars in a number of subtle ways, but the most egregious is through investment by American mutual funds and retirement programs, both private and government sponsored.

Once upon a time, I was a Registered Representative. Since that time, I have been more aware of the importance of financial markets to the average person. Back in the 1990’s, we were concerned about responsible Christian investing: no alcohol, tobacco or other “sinful” investments. Several mutual funds were created to meet the need for “socially conscious” investing. These funds typically underperformed, so many languished or disappeared. Money was more important to people than principles.

In this current situation, we may be dealing more with our very existence as a free country than as a “moral” country. If China continues to leverage its control over American markets, they could conceivably create a situation that would make the crash of 1929 look like a church picnic. I’m not an alarmist; I know God is in control. I also know that He expects us to do what we can to promote justice and equity in the world. Promoting China promotes the opposite of our cherished principles.

You are pretty much powerless to change what your company retirement plan invests in. We all have some say in what our government plans invest in. Robertson suggests that what is happening has already run afoul of SEC regulations and government restrictions on foreign investment. As arcane as it may be, I am asking that any of my readers who understand what this all means to make some noise. Call a congressman; lobby your investment counselors asking them to investigate this; check what your mutual funds etcetera are involved with.

This situation may be an example of what Yeats meant when he wrote in “The Second Coming” that the center cannot hold. We may be spiraling into the void. He prophesied, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst \ Are full of passionate intensity.” The “rough beast” he foresaw may be Chinese. Do what you can or don’t be surprised when the second coming is not what you expected.