Three Projects to Save America

COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the U.S. economy, which had soared to new heights before it arrived. The most immediate impact has been on the once-powerful job market, which has risen from record low levels to depths not seen since the Great Depression.

While stimulus payments and business loans are a central part of the recovery equation, the heavy work of bringing America back to the unrivalled prosperity it enjoyed before the Chinese plague hit can come from major new projects. The nation has several long-neglected needs that urgently require addressing, and this is the ideal time to do just that.

Not coincidentally, three major areas that should be taken care of immediately have to do with protecting the nation from Beijing, both militarily and medicinally.

Any doubt that the PRC’s ruling Communist Party is ruthless and reckless enough to engage in actions which could significantly damage America at home and abroad have been removed by the COVID crisis. The threat is real and urgent.

Over the next three days, the New York Analysis of Policy and Government will examine three major projects that could help jump start the U.S. economy, and protect the nation from China’s growing threats.

Pharmaceutical Infrastructure

Washington is restrained from punishing China to the extent it should due to America’s dependence on that renegade nation’s control of the drug market. Allowing an adversarial power to dominate this life and death industry was an act of unmatched negligence on the part of the U.S. government over the past several decades.

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In her 2019 testimony before the House Subcommittee on Health, Dr. Janet Woodcock, Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at the Food and Drug Administration, reported:

“ in recent decades, drug manufacturing has gradually moved out of the United States. This is particularly true for manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), the actual drugs that are then formulated into tablets, capsules, injections, etc. As of August 2019, only 28 percent of the manufacturing facilities making APIs to supply the U.S. market were in our country. By contrast, the remaining 72 percent of the API manufacturers supplying the U.S. market were overseas, and 13 percent are in China… The pharmaceutical sector relies heavily on foreign sourcing for critical components, materials, and finished products…use of foreign-sourced materials creates vulnerabilities in the U.S. drug supply…The number of Chinese facilities producing APIs for the U.S. market has increased over the past decade, as part of a massive movement of pharmaceutical production offshore. …Absent any intervention, FDA believes that this trend is likely to continue…By supporting the growth of advanced manufacturing in the United States, we can reduce our dependence on China and other overseas manufacturers for APIs as well as improve the resilience and responsiveness of our manufacturing base and reduce drug shortages.”

At a 2019 hearing before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Commisioner James Talent stated that “China is the biggest global source of generic drugs, pharmaceutical ingredients, and other health products including dietary supplements, biologics, and medical devices. There are serious deficiencies in health and safety standards in China’s pharmaceutical sector and inconsistent and ineffective regulation by the Chinese Government. Yet, the U.S. imports of these health products, either directly from China or indirectly through companies and third countries continues to increase. According to the Food and Drug Administration, 13.4 percent of U.S. drugs and biologic imports are from China, as well as 39.3 percent of medical device imports, making China one of America’s top sources for medical products. These numbers understate significantly the true sourcing of health products in China because China is also the primary supplier of precursors for pharmaceutical companies in other countries such as India which, in turn, are major suppliers of finished product to the United States.”

In addition to the bricks and mortar rectification of this vulnerability, official Washington, and most specifically the legions of bureaucrats that have been in control of areas such as commerce, foreign affairs, and health need to begin a tough, soul-searching examination of how America was led down this dangerous path of utter dependency in so vital an area. The chimera and nonsense of globalization, which has imperiled the nation and lost the type of jobs that established the middle class, must be exposed for the elitist fallacy it truly is.

Tomorrow: Rebuilding the U.S. shipping industry

Picture: Pixabay

Quick Analysis

Ukraine’s Frozen Conflict

As we approach winter in the northern hemisphere, the war in Ukraine is beginning to resemble a “frozen conflict” from many perspectives. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently told the media he hopes the war will end faster once President-elect Trump takes over in January. Opinions in Moscow, however, differ from that of the Ukrainian leader. Russian President Vladimir Putin argues that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) needs to exclude Ukraine from joining in “exchange” for peace. If it does not, he says, then no end to the war is in sight. So far there is no Christmas solution. Several NATO countries, according to Vladimir Socor of the Jamestown Foundation, are tentatively considering “coalitions-of-the-willing” to provide security for Ukraine outside of the formal NATO framework. There is, however, no collective mechanism today under which such an arrangement is viable. According to the NATO Charter, while Ukraine is a NATO partner country, it may not join as a full member since it has not fulfilled the requirements for membership. That has not stopped NATO and allies from continuing “to provide Ukraine with unprecedented levels of support, helping to uphold its fundamental right to self-defence,” according to the organization. Socor says that keeping Ukraine out of NATO will not advance peace with Russia. Waiting for a peace settlement, he suggests, would only serve to encourage Moscow to continue the war indefinitely. Although the Biden Administration officially withdrew its support for Ukrainian membership in 2021, NATO maintains an “open door” policy toward membership-seeking countries. The current White House position led the way for European states to oppose Ukraine’s membership saying that a decision should be delayed until “conditions are met.” Biden pushed for changing “open door” to a “bridge” metaphor. It is not intended as an across-the-board NATO policy and has been implemented in the past on a case-by-case basis, says Socor. “The alliance’s open-door policy was not fully insulated from Russia’s non-statutory blocking power, and NATO-aspirant countries’ path toward membership was not always irreversible.” Russia has successfully blocked states like Georgia from joining, first in 2008 and again after the war in Ukraine began in 2014. Russia recognizes the value add of Ukraine to NATO is enormous and that Kyiv has a better case than some other nations. Putin’s invasion was, in part, intended to foreclose that option. By 2021, Moscow was pushing hard to maximize its war objectives, which included further annexations of Ukrainian territory. A main goal for Putin was, and is, to ensure there is no Ukraine left to join NATO. As President-elect Trump prepares to assume office in January, he is faced with the historical challenges presented by the war. Post-conflict security guarantees were the center of several proposals made during the 2023 military stalemate. The incoming Trump Administration has yet to outline how it intends to handle the Russia-Ukraine war. Analysts in Washington believe that the new Administration will expect its European allies to guarantee the majority of Ukraine’s security needs. As we approach 2025, several European nations have acknowledged that they do not view Ukraine as eligible for NATO membership as it would draw the organization into the middle of the conflict. Others want to wait until the war is over or pending a “peace” settlement before considering Ukrainian membership. Socor reports that some “influential voices” are suggesting that “Kyiv should join NATO after “freezing” the war along a stable armistice line, de facto accepting Ukraine’s partition, with NATO security guarantees applying de jure to the government-controlled territory only.” This would mean starting accession talks soon with the actual talks to commence only after a ceasefire is in place. Trump arrives in Washington at a time when Putin’s hybrid strategies of war in Ukraine have eviscerated commonly-held differences between war and peace. “Absent a political consensus in NATO over Ukrainian membership, certain European allies, including France’s President Emmanuel Macron, are holding informal consultations about post-conflict security guarantees to Kyiv by NATO members outside of NATO’s framework,” according to the Jamestown Foundation. The Biden Administration downplayed the discussions on possible forms of military assistance and defense industry cooperation by sending only an Assistant Secretary of State. For a European peace to hold the Trump Administration would need to formally extend the United States’ nuclear deterrence to Ukraine. Options under discussion in Europe include a “coalition of the resolute” to deploy forces to Ukraine as part of a possible armistice package, deterring further Russian attacks, says Secor. European officials are also debating, without any agreement, whether its military forces could perform non-combat logistical roles to free Ukrainian forces to fight. None of the possible courses of action has moved forward as all eyes are waiting on the incoming Trump Administration for clues about its intended level of support for a NATO framework and other non-NATO proposals. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept.