Letter to the editor: China is not our friend

OPINION:

Real friendship is a two-way street. A fake friend is in it only for what he can get out of it. His goal is not reciprocity, but the biggest possible imbalance in his favor.

When you finally stand up for yourself, if he is particularly manipulative, he will respond by pretending to be hurt. “Come on,” he will say. “I thought we were friends.”

China tried to pull this trick recently when it attacked the Trump administration for blacklisting 60 Chinese companies — including online retailer Alibaba and electric car maker BYD — over their alleged ties to China’s military.

The Chinese seem to think that after one good meeting between President Trump and Xi Jinping, the U.S. should be willing to set aside our interests and sing kumbaya with our greatest geopolitical adversary, even as it continues to undermine our national security.

We are supposed to forget that China has been taking advantage of us for decades. America remained willfully blind to these realities for far too long, but we are finally waking up and playing to win.

Yes, we are cracking down on Chinese companies with links to the People’s Liberation Army. Sometimes, that means a lobbying ban or removal from military supply chains. Other times, it means helping American companies succeed so Chinese firms do not dominate the global market.

The administration uses export controls to keep the most powerful artificial intelligence training chips from falling into the hands of the Chinese tech giant Huawei. Last year, the Justice Department approved a telecom acquisition of Juniper by HPE after the intelligence community pointed out that creating a large American firm to challenge Huawei globally would be a win for our national security.

China’s “I thought we were friends” schtick might have worked under previous administrations, but not this one. The days of America treating China as a member of the international community in good standing are over.

We understand that China poses an existential threat to American security and prosperity. China is not our friend, and no amount of crocodile tears from its embassy will convince us otherwise.

DEYU WANG

Director, Citizen Power Initiatives for China

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania