INTERVIEW | ‘A Very Dangerous Situation,’ Benedict Rogers Says of US Depending Too Much on China For Imports

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, “the United States imports more from China than from any other country." The total volume of imports in 2022 from China into the U.S. amounted to more than $536 billion, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported.

The Group of Seven leaders in May issued a statement about "de-risking and diversifying" from China, while also acknowledging that they would not be "decoupling or turning inwards."

What does "de-risking" and "diversifying" look like?

"Well, I think the imbalance of trade is extremely concerning, particularly when we're talking about a regime that is now credibly accused of a genocide against the Uyghur people. It has totally broken an international treaty in regard to Hong Kong and dismantled completely the promised freedoms and autonomy for Hong Kong," says Benedict Rogers, co-founder and chief executive of Hong Kong Watch.

Hong Kong Watch is a "registered charity" based in the United Kingdom that "researches and monitors threats to Hong Kong’s basic freedoms, the rule of law and autonomy as promised under the ‘one country, two systems’ principle, which is enshrined in the Basic Law and the Sino-British Joint Declaration," according to its website.

"And it's committing other very serious atrocity crimes against other groups within China, but also it's complicit with atrocities in other regimes, particularly North Korea and Burma," Rogers says. "And of course, it's increasingly threatening Taiwan. And plus, it's a regime that hid and lied to the world over the virus, which became the COVID-19 global pandemic."

Rogers adds:

So, to have such a high dependency on that one country for imports I think is a very dangerous situation to be in. And I hope that the United States and other countries as well will diversify, and that means producing more at home, but also investing in other countries that are less risky.

Rogers joins today's episode of "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss the difference between "de-coupling" and "de-risking and diversifying"; how the U.S. can ethically trade with China; and his book, published late last year, "China Nexus: Thirty Years In and Around the Chinese Communist Party’s Tyranny."