China is a bad actor on the world stage. Americans have known this long before it lied about the coronavirus, a pandemic that has killed more than 80,000 people and caused the loss of untold trillions of dollars of economic activity. The regime’s record on human rights abuse, currency manipulation, and theft of intellectual property speaks for itself. It’s shown outward aggression toward the United States in the South China Sea. It has demonstrated that it plans on expanding its influence throughout Eurasia, Africa, and South America, hoping to supplant the U.S. as the world’s preeminent superpower.

Despite these actions, most of the leadership in Washington has facilitated China in its goal of overtaking the U.S. That’s not necessarily because we have bad leaders, but because we’ve subscribed to a failed ideology.