Overreliance on China leaves the United States vulnerable

FOR MORE THAN two decades, the U.S.-China trading relationship has been at the center of globalization's story: low-cost goods for American consumers, rapid growth for China and an intricate web of supply chains binding the world's two largest economies together. The Chinese people - hardworking, innovative and industrious - have been essential partners in that story.

- CHRISTIAN B. TEETER GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

But economic relationships are strategic choices. What once seemed like a path toward shared prosperity has become a structural imbalance that weakens America's autonomy. It's time to end our excessive trading reliance on China not over global tensions or hostility, but for the sake of pragmatism.

This isn't an argument against global trade or ending relations with China. It's an argument for better trade. It's about reinforcing not rebuilding America's economic strength by deepening our engagement with democratic, market-based nations while reducing exposure to a single authoritarian power that wields disproportionate leverage over our economy.

The economic facts are stark. In 2024, U.S. exports to China totaled roughly $143 billion, while imports from China reached almost $439 billion. That imbalance produced a trade deficit of more than $295 billion the largest bilateral deficit the U.S. maintains. Total trade between the two countries approached $659 billion. Some economists have argued that large and persistent deficits with China have contributed to U.S. job losses since China's accession to the World Trade Organization in December 2001.

Such numbers might not matter if trade were evenly distributed across sectors and partners. But much of this dependence is concentrated in strategically sensitive industries. Nowhere is this more dangerous than with rare earth elements, which are critical to nearly every advanced technology, from semiconductors, electric vehicles, wind turbines and smartphones to radars and precision-guided defense systems. China also accounts for the majority of rare earth production and nearly 90% of its processing worldwide.