By Stephen Macaulay

China is the fourth biggest (geographically speaking) county in the world. The biggest is Russia, then Canada, and in third is the U.S. We ought to keep relations with Justin Trudeau good, if geography is destiny. Population? With about 1.4-billion people, the People’s Republic of China is number one.

It is a communist party-led state, with the head of the government being Premier Li Keqiang. Who? Exactly.

The chief of state is President Xi Jinping. Yes. The president (and veep) are indirectly elected by the National People’s Congress. Xi was reelected with all 2,970 votes.

According to nothing less than the CIA World Fact Book, “all broadcast media are owned by, or affiliated with, the Communist Party of China or a government agency; no privately owned TV or radio stations; state-run Chinese Central TV, provincial, and municipal stations offer more than 2,000 channels; the Central Propaganda Department sends directives to all domestic media outlets to guide its reporting with the government maintaining authority to approve all programming,” and according to nothing less than HowToGeek, although China has the greatest number of internet users, “Unlike, for example, the United States or European countries, China has placed its internet behind a strict screen of censorship dubbed the Great Firewall. It’s a highly sophisticated system that can block connections from Chinese IP addresses to ones that are considered harmful to the Chinese public. . . . The Chinese Communist Party tightly controls information flow and prefers that its people not read sources that haven’t been vetted by the regime.”

So what do we have here?

A big place.

Lots of people.

Controlled by a communist government.

Led by a man who got 100% of the votes.

Little in the way of free information as we know it.

Oh, and another thing to think about: it has been around since about 1200 BC.

(Some Americans are all excited about Jamestown Island. In China they were kicking around some 2,800 years by the time the Brits landed in what became Virginia.)

Xi isn’t just interested in 3,705,407-square miles under his control.

There is the Belt and Road Initiative that is making investments in countries from Europe to Africa, providing monies to build out infrastructure, which is clearly thought to benefit not only the countries in question, but China.

The country has committed to taking leadership position in everything from electric vehicles to artificial intelligence.

Did COVID-19 escape from a lab in Wuhan?

None of your damn business.

Taiwan?

Part of China under the “One China Principle.”

Hong Kong?

A “special administrative region”—of China.

One of the things that tends to be overlooked by those who are involved in chest thumping and Stars-and-Bars flag waving are some of the simple facts enumerated above about China. A big place with lots of people and a GDP second only to the United States and leaders who are interested in expanding the influence of China around the world.

Too many people think the U.S. exists in a bubble -- or think we should exist in a bubble. The world doesn’t work that way.

When there are politicians — in both parties — who can’t even agree on something as simple as funding to fix roads and how to respond to the Chinese building a space station, there really needs to be some serious consideration of how long before the Chinese are what the Americans once were.

It isn’t looking good because when there are people who are serious up against people who are delusional, guess who dominates.

This is in no way to suggest that the activities in China are to be emulated (I like the fact, for example, that you can read The Hustings), but that unless we truly make America great again — and not in the context of a disgraced real estate hustler — the future for the country isn’t particularly bright.

To quote a piece recently published by the International Monetary Fund, “Global Clout, Domestic Fragility”:

“In 2012 the Chinese government set a long-term goal: build China into a fully developed and prosperous country by 2049, 100 years after the founding of the People’s Republic. Given its success since the beginning of economic reform in 1978, this kind of transformation is certainly possible. But it is difficult and not guaranteed.”

America used to take on things that are difficult and not guaranteed.

Today?