China has a death grip on our medical supplies and consequently, our ability to survive. It is the sole manufacturer of one hundred medications we commonly use, including antibiotics and blood thinners, and is the largest supplier of nitrate gloves, masks, syringes, and other medical equipment essential in hospitals.
China has threatened to weaponize its monopoly on these supplies to throw our hospitals into chaos, stress us in our death beds, and watch us suffer.
When your enemy issues a threat like that, believe it.
China’s state-run media publication, Xinhua, warned soon after the outbreak of COVID-19 that China might retaliate against Trump’s U.S. travel ban by banning the export of all medical products, adding that “the United States will fall into the hell of a new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic.”
Now, in the trade war with the United States, cutting off medical supplies is possibly China’s next move, and we are not ready.
On April 3, only one day after President Donald Trump initially hiked tariffs on Chinese goods, China hit back with a total suspension of exports of rare earth minerals and magnets, its other strategic monopoly besides medical supplies.
Rare earth minerals and magnets are essential to manufacture autos, Air Force fighter jets, drones, robots – basically the next generation of warfare materials. China’s move puts a stranglehold on these industries.
Unlike the tit-for-tat dance going on between the U.S. and its friendly trading partners over tariff levels, China’s cutting off exports is an act of raw economic warfare.
China is blocking the ability of the U.S. to get essential goods at any price. Today, it’s rare earth minerals. Tomorrow, possibly medicines and medical supplies.
Global free trade, with zero tariffs, is a goal the U.S. can pursue with friendly countries. But not with China, an adversary that aspires to global dominance.
India, the other chief supplier to the United States, relies largely on China for basic ingredients, per the Global Trade Research Initiative, an Indian think tank. With almost no other foreign sources for generic medications and medical supplies, the U.S. has no alternative but to produce these goods at home.
The first Trump administration saw that. Gary Cohn, former director of the National Economic Council, reportedly warned, “If you’re the Chinese and you really want to destroy us, just stop sending us antibiotics.”
In 2020, Trump invoked the Defense Production Act, setting a goal of producing a quarter to a third of gloves and other hospital supplies domestically.
But the Biden administration floundered in the execution. By 2022, the government had spent roughly $1 billion on half-finished factories to produce nitrate gloves without a single glove to show for it, a sad saga reported by America Affairs. In early 2022, the funding expired, and the Biden administration didn’t bother to request a renewal.
Dependence on China for gloves actually increased after 2020, despite the quality being so poor that double gloving is now routine in hospitals to compensate for frequent tearing.
Similarly, U.S. imports of finished Chinese pharmaceuticals and active ingredients soared after 2020, per the Atlantic Council, despite Biden paying lip service to reducing dependence.
The Strategic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient Reserve, set up in 2020 to anticipate China cutting off access, was only 1% filled as of November 2024, per a report from American Compass trade think tank.
That’s shocking negligence.
Last week’s clampdown on rare earth minerals is a wake-up call.
Congress needs to invest public funds or offer tax incentives to build medical manufacturing capacity. A bill offered last week by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) does this.
The U.S. should slap hefty tariffs on China’s medications. Generic drug manufacturers here are more likely to invest in expansion if they know they won’t be blown away by cheap, Chinese competitors.
Shift the conversation in Washington, D.C., from shaving drug costs to ensuring access. Domestic manufacturing will cost more, and tariffs will add yet another layer of cost. But the key is to be able to get the drug you need – to prevent a heart attack or dissolve a blood clot – whether China is on the warpath or not.
China’s President Xi Jinping says, “There are no winners in a trade war, or a tariff war.” That’s untrue. The U.S. appears poised to win reciprocal tariffs, or no tariffs, with its friendly trading partners. Meanwhile, China has shown its true colors, an adversary trying to bring its trading partners to their knees.
The U.S. has been warned and must act on it.
Betsy McCaughey is a former Lt. Governor of New York State and Chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey.
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This is why our pharmaceuticals should have remained here in America. I don’t trust the world. NAFTA was a big bend-over moment for this country.
China has essentially declared war on the United States. Their scorched earth policies has revealed they have no shame when it comes to anything humanitarian. But really, it comes down to the shortsighted policies of our politicians to make us dependent on everything outsourced. Cheap and inexpensive anything becomes expensive everything when the suppliers can hold us hostage, especially when we made them the sole supplier.
Trump tried in his first term to get pharmaceutical companies to return to the U.S., but of course that didn’t happen. Now we are in deep trouble. The reduction or exclusion of some OTC and prescription drugs have the possibility of forcing us to eat healthier to study organic and natural foods in order to not have the disease/issue in the first place, diet, etc., but for some, this might be a crucial and dangerous decision. I’d suggest that we all pray about this and then deal with the outcome. We, in this community, KNOW we can’t sustain our economy as it was, but the process to regain what we have lost will be painful. Tighten your belts, see if you can get off addictive drugs, cut back on everything you’re taking OTC, etc. We will need to hep in this scenario!!! Pres. Trump can’t do it alone. To AMAC. I’m really getting seriously tired of having to prove to a robot that I’m a human. Is there no way that you can verify our membership but for the captcha thing???
Once America was involved in the fight to prevent Nazi Germany from taking over the world, at the very same time did nothing to prevent the Red tide from rising, in fact FDR kissed Stalin’s ring. The enlightened ones and academia and Hollywood were enthralled with communism, this is the result, why the surprise? Not once do media mention the hundreds of millions murdered and perished in the past and persecuted today only that magic number 6 million crops up now and then to remind us what a monstrous regime it was and how lucky we are it was dealt with.
Move BioTech back to the US
China’s response does not surprise me. It also indicates what they are capable of doing and what they will do in order to cripple our country. Trump’s tariffs now exposes what China can and will do. These threats are underway; we are one step away from a full economic war.
Trump’s initiatives have simply accelerated what China has had in mind for a while. They want to end us. They are truly are enemy!
No meds, no grid…wake up, America. Wake up, Congress.
People in America are entirely over-medicated. Especially seniors. It would be best for everyone to dump ALL of their fake “life saving” medications and eat healthy instead of cramming gobs of fat and sugar and overly processed foods down your throats. That requires doing hard work though, so the pill popping continues.
China has always been enemy of the US, eating away at our country! The elitist have allowed all of this out of greed, using slave labor and children! If the Democrats had won the 2024 election China would have already ready taken over Taiwan and maybe Japan, cause the Democrats would have allowed them too. Democrats are on their payroll!
The Selling of America… it is now coming back to bite us in the ass. And until we can become self-dependent, it will only get worse.
We should NEVER be at the mercy of our enemies for anything, and certainly NOT for key elements of our survival, national security, and infrastructure! This is all due to beijing biden and the rest of the demoncrap cabal. They should all be arrested for treason and stripped of all their ill-gotten gain.
Pray that President Tump has plan override this threat!
I have worried about the quality of pharmaceutical products that are made in china. Quality control is not their strong suit. I hope they are made in America soon.
STOP GETTING MEDICAL SUPPLIES FROM CHINA, ARE YOU CRAZY, WHY WOULD WE GET MEDICATIONS AND OTHER KEY MEDICAL STUFF FROM OUR ENEMY THAT WANTS TO DESTROY US.
DO IT NOW!!!!!! PRODUCE OUR MEDICATIONS IN THE USA
I have never understood why America has come to rely on countries hostile to us for important supplies. Why is American not producing all we need and exporting to other countries. (I realize unions have forces US companies to increase costs due to their high and often unnecessary demands.) If we are going to rely on another country to supply the US with medical supplies and products we should be going to our allies, such as Israel. Israel is at the forefront of so many groundbreaking medical breakthroughs in medication and treatments. Yet, the USDA refuses to approve most of those medications and treatments…unless they are from China.
President Trump needs to remove all tariffs on Israel products and start investing in Israel’s medical, and technological industries. Together, our two nations can make this world healthier and safer and remove the world’s reliance on evil communist dictatorships like China. We need to be reminded that our “cheap” goods from China are produced by essentially slave labor.
detest this cruel lack of humanity
First, tell the drug companies get you a** back to America pronto or loss all patent or ip rights if new companies start up back here at home. Allow any company starting up on drug manufacturing full acsess here at home and d is allow said companies from selling their products in America.
SAME ON US for allowing China to become this powerful. Who’s watch was it on…probably several but democrats were involved in them all. Now that someone is at the helm to question China’s control of us, we are paying dearly. Gotta do it. If we don’t do it now, the Chinese flag may be flying in Washington tomorrow..
I WOULD RATHER PAY DOUBLE FOR MEDICATIONS THEN GET IT FROM CHINA!!!!!
China has openly stated they plan on war with the USA in 2027. They’re in a massive military buildup with one goal…war. They make no bones about it. We’re funding that military buildup with the massive transfer of wealth our unbalanced and unfair trade practices generate. They’ve been waging economic war against us. Spying on us. Stealing our intellectual property. Infiltrating our computer systems. Every single spec of fentanyl that comes into this country is courtesy of the Chinese government.
They’re not our friend, they’re not a trade partner, we’ve tried “working with them”, and they’ve ripped us off for decades with tariffs on US goods, intellectual property theft, massive restrictions on US companies. Lest you forget, it was under Biden that the Chinese were threatening to withhold medical supplies and were in fact slow-rolling deliveries.
Let’s not see who the real bad guys are here. We willingly sent our manufacturing to China and other countries because we didn’t want to pay a decent wage to American manufacturing workers. But before we raise that flag; American manufacturing workers got out of hand with wage and benefit demands and the billionaire owners got focused on profit margins. Since neither were willing to compromise the owners simply shut the doors to the factory and moved their manufacturing to other countries who poor population would work for pennies on the dollar. Contrary to popular belief not every job requires a college degree or comes with a 6-digit wage. So now, to get a pencil or work pen we have to order it from China, Mexico, etc. Today the owners spend a penny to manufacture a pen that they sell to you for a dollar. To manufacture that same pen in America today would cost a dollar and it’d sell for 2 dollars. But we don’t care that someone is working in a sweat shop at 10 dollars a day to provide us with that one-dollar pen. Or that this one-way supply chain could someday be used to control us.
China is getting ready to release germ to create another pandemic
This is due to trade war & not being ready in USA in some arenas. Also, maybe it is time for USA to look at tort reform regarding how people file lawsuits that are frivolous. The high costs of prescriptions and liability insurance costs are a major problem in USA vs. other countries that recognize the risks & side effects of such. The class action suits against tobacco companies are a good example of who ended up with most of the money in these settlements.
This will turn into a worse problem, when US quits funding higher education that utilizes graduate students (with grants) to study methods to improve our medical issues. A lot of these grants have resulted in giant steps to improve the health of this nation & in some cases the entire world.
What B.S.! What are many seniors and ALL low income people going to do for the decade or more that will lapse between all these grand statements about building American factories going to do about the high cost or non existence of medications often needed to survive? China didn’t steal our medicine industry, we were the ones that thought a “service based economy” was going to be the greatest thing ever. Now when too many people turn on room lights at the “wrong” time of day, our grid collapses. Our rail system is worst than whats found in Peru and our young people would rather die than even consider working factory labor and if they could be persuaded, at what wage and what would that do for drug costs?
Why can’t we quit with the bigoted crap against China and all things Asian and implement fair cross border marketing? We blame China for……….working and building their industrial base? Remember folks it was we that started this trade conflict. It’s the same attitude which has the US as the only nation with fleets of aircraft carriers to project ourselves globally. Why not, as President Trump promised, put American interests first. Now maybe killing off us old folks is now something considered of interest to Americas welfare. It must be for our politicians to have completely lost their minds.
Wait a couple weeks. All these tariffs and sanctions will be gone. America isn’t and hasn’t been for a LONG time the “mega power” we consider ourselves to be. We really need to just get along with our trading partners. Compete instead of blackmailing and thievery.
In short, as Jack Kelley once had Pogo say, “we have met the enemy and he is us”.