Opinion: China’s long game, part I — buying America’s farmland

Several years ago, I wrote about the Four Tigers of Asia: Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea. They were the countries that were emerging as economic powerhouses, and — in 2018 — they constituted almost 3.5 percent of entire world’s economy. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product, meaning the total value of goods and services produced within a country’s borders) for Hong Kong was $363 billion; for Singapore, $361 billion; for Taiwan, $589 billion; and for South Korea, $1.6 trillion, all rounded off.

Small powers emerge

Beginning in the early years of the 21st Century, South Korea and Taiwan made their mark in the production of electronic devices, including computer chips, while Singapore and Hong Kong had developed into major financial centers. However, at the conclusion of my column, I pointed out that there was a Sleeping Dragon hiding behind the Four Tigers, and it was China.

But China wasn’t really sleeping. It was quietly building national wealth which it planned to use to displace America from its global dominance. With three times the number of workers as we have in the United States, China set about stealing intelligence and innovations by ignoring things like patents and copyrights. So, the government of China simply copied our scientific books and journal articles in their own language and copied our products in government-subsidized factories with lower-paid workers.