looking for questions to answers that bother me so
The Illusion of Success: Why the China Tariff Pause Is Not a Victory Red Dragon Files Op-Ed Thought Brief | May 2025 In geopolitics, outcomes matter more than optics. The public may be distracted by headlines and slogans, but markets, manufacturers, and adversaries are watching something else: the numbers. In a global economic confrontation—especially one
The Gathering Storm Series: Epilogue: The World Reconsiders Empires often fall behind closed doors. This one is breaking in the open. For decades, China promised partnership but delivered control. It sold growth, but extracted dependency. Nations signed the deals. China wrote the terms. One-sided trade. Lopsided influence. A slow erosion of sovereignty disguised as opportunity.
The Gathering Storm Series: Part 10 – The Dragon’s Cracked Scales: Xi Jinping’s Waning Grip Empires don’t fall with a bang. They rot from within.Today’s China—bloated with debt, braced by propaganda, and bruised by unrest—carries all the signs. The illusion of strength endures. But behind the red banners and state slogans, a storm brews within
The Gathering Storm Series: Part 9 – The Dragon’s Coin: Breaking the Dollar, Buying the World Follow the Coin Empires do not rise with gunfire. They rise on coin. On trade. On control of what the world needs—and who gets it. That was the essence of mercantilism centuries ago. And it is the beating heart
The Gathering Storm Series: Part 8 – Rebuilding the Arsenal of DemocracyReading Time: 5–6 minutes A Time to Rebuild When tyrants rise, the free world must answer. In the 1940s, we rose from the shadows of a deep depression with a singular resolve: We turned our factories into fortresses and our people into producers of
The Gathering Storm Series: Part 7 – The Dragon’s Fire: China’s Militarization and the New Pacific Front The Fire Ignites China no longer hides its ambitions behind trade deals or borrowed rhetoric. The dragon now breathes fire—across sea lanes, through satellites, and into sovereign airspace. What was once influence now roars as might. Soft power
The Gathering Storm Series: Part 6 – The Dragon’s Reach: China’s Global Coercion Tactics Word Count: 800 | Reading Time: ~5 minutes Extending the Dragon’s Reach China’s grip no longer ends at its borders. It threads through embassies, satellite offices, academic exchanges, apps, and influence operations. Its ambition is global—not through tanks or treaties, but
The Gathering Storm Series: Part 5 – The Dragon’s Mask Word Count: 625| Reading Time: 4 minutes The Smile That Deceives China’s greatest export is not steel, nor silicon, nor clothing. Not even cheap items that many do not want or need, for that matter. Not to mention, the country of origin is hidden in
The Gathering Storm Series: Part 4 – Digging Deeper into the Dragon’s Veins Word Count: 900 | Reading Time: 5 minutes The Dragon Tightens Its Grip In April 2025, the Chinese Communist Party imposed export controls on seven rare earth elements. These materials—samarium, neodymium, dysprosium, and others—are unfamiliar to most Americans, but they are essential
The Gathering Storm Series: Part 3 – The Red Dragon’s Detour (Word Count: 445| Reading Time: 3 minutes) Beijing blinked. Tariffs are biting, and China is looking for a workaround. Not a trade deal. A disguise. As reported by The Wright Report, Chinese exporters are now offering licensing deals to Indian manufacturers to build and
