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Beijing has just shown the rest of the world its hand by choking off critical components of modern industry — announcing export curbs on rare-earth magnets and other strategic materials that power everything from EV motors to defense systems. This is naked economic coercion, a calculated move by the Chinese Communist Party to weaponize supply chains and force our hand.
China didn’t stop at export controls; it has rolled out a raft of retaliatory measures, from new port fees aimed at U.S. ships to steep cuts in shipments of vital rare earths, all meant to punish America and our allies for pushing back. Make no mistake: this is aggression dressed up as policy by a regime that sees economic leverage as a blunt instrument for geopolitical gain.
President Trump’s response — threatening a 100 percent tariff on Chinese goods starting November 1 — is an understandable instinct to strike back hard at an adversary that plays by no rules. But instinct and strategy are not the same thing; threatening blanket economic punishment risks detonating the very economy patriots depend on, and markets promptly signaled that fear.
Conservative patriots should demand toughness, not theatrics. Broad, across-the-board tariffs are blunt, indiscriminate tools that will make food, appliances, and farm exports more expensive and hand choke points to Beijing’s advantage, while smart policy — targeted export controls, tightened investment screening, and coordinated action with allies — preserves leverage without wrecking Main Street. The markets and strategists have already warned that sweeping tariffs will sap growth and punish American workers.
There is room for an unapologetically strong American response that also thinks strategically: accelerate domestic rare-earth and magnet production through incentives, secure supply chains with our allies, blacklist malign Chinese firms, and use financial and visa tools to hit CCP elites where it hurts. Treasury and trade hawks are in talks now to de-escalate the immediate crisis — a sign that diplomacy backed by muscle, not theater, will win the day if we do it right.
If we are to defend American prosperity and national security, we must call out China’s aggression while refusing to play into policies that amount to economic self-sabotage. Patriots want a president who protects American workers and industries, not one whose scorched-earth threats risk making everyday life harder for the people who built this country. Toughness with precision is the conservative way forward — and Washington needs to start acting like it.
