In His New Term, Trump Must Aggressively Confront Communist China | Opinion

At the recent gathering of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Peru, Leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xi Jinping pledged to work with the incoming Trump Administration. Xi’s cooperative pledge comes despite the CCP’s recent cyberattacks targeting our telecommunications infrastructure, unprovoked maritime aggression, and worsening human rights abuses.

With rising threats from the CCP and their regional allies, President Trump will have his work cut out for him in the Asia Pacific Region. But these challenges provide an opportunity for the U.S. to reassert itself on the international stage, restore global stability, and defend the values of freedom.

As an immigrant to the United States and daughter of two Korean-born parents, the cause of freedom is close to my heart. Civilians across the globe have the right to live in a safe, free society—a cause that continues to be an ongoing struggle in East Asia.

My own parents fled Communist North Korea during the war, meeting in a South Korean City that became a sanctuary for refugees. My mother’s family was forced to hide in fields amid their escape, later boarding boats heading South.

As a Korean American serving in Congress who came to the United States after growing up in Japan, who speaks both Korean and Japanese fluently, I have a unique appreciation for the culture and challenges facing the region. I have worked over the past four years to elevate the trilateral partnership between the U.S. and our allies like Japan and South Korea. Through strengthening our alliances, the Trump Administration can effectively push back on China’s influence and promote the twin goals of security and human rights.

Such an approach would be in keeping with President Trump’s promise to confront China head-on. His early appointments of noted China hawks like Senator Marco Rubio and Congressman Mike Waltz signal an aggressive America First posture is coming that also can promote regional stability.

Confronting China is a necessity considering an ongoing uproar in the Asia-Pacific region, especially North Korea’s increased military exercises in the Korean Peninsula. While Xi recently stated that he would not allow “war and chaos” in the region, he has all-too-often stood by his ally Kim Jong-Un as the despot has tested nuclear weapons.

Additionally, Russian aircraft has recently made a habit of unlawfully entering Japanese airspace, adding to further chaos in the region by an ally of China.

The dangerous China-North Korea-Russia partnership merits a strong, deterrence-focused response. The safety and security of regional allies like Japan, South Korea, and others depends on a United States that is feared by our adversaries.

The free world is threatened by a nuclear North Korea that has been emboldened in recent years by a stronger alliance with China and Russia with weaker deterrence by the U.S. Similarly, China continues to escalate tensions in the South and East China Seas, making illegitimate territorial claims as part of their campaign of aggression.

This reality makes both standing up to our adversaries and strengthening key alliances equally essential. The Trump administration has an opportunity to aggressively promote American interests in the Asia Pacific by increasing engagement with our allies like Japan and South Korea—two nations that have dramatically improved their own bilateral relationship in recent years.

Strengthening our economic and diplomatic partnership with these nations will serve as an important hedge against China, Russia, and North Korea, while also promoting America’s economic interests.

On the human rights front, both Rubio and Walz have also expressed a hard line of China’s persecution of Uyghur Muslims and other minorities. This minority religious population has faced systematic genocide, with the CCP detaining over one million adherents.

Despite a U.S. law barring imports of products manufactured using forced labor by persecuted Uyghur Muslims in China, recent reporting found that two federal agencies continue to utilize supplies stemming from forced labor. The Biden Administration removed sanctions on China related to their persecution against Uyghurs, a decision that should be revisited by a Trump administration that formerly took a hard line on the CCP’s persecution of Uyghur Muslims.

China also continues to target practitioners of the Falun Gong religious sect and exert “total control” over religious life, according to a recent report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

In the interest of our allies’ global security and the protection of human rights, President Trump has a prime opportunity to fulfill his commitments to aggressively confront bad actors like Communist China and North Korea. In coordination with our Asia Pacific allies, such an approach is even more imperative due to a lack of action by international bodies like the United Nation to hold bad actors accountable.

As the new administration prepares to take over, there will be no time to waste in tackling enormous challenges in a region vital to global stability.

Congresswoman Michelle Steel represents California’s 45^th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. She serves as co-chair of the Congressional Victims of Communism Caucus.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.