US President Donald J. Trump's current trade stand-off with the People's Republic of China (PRC) has already induced some Chinese companies, such as Shein, BYD, TikTok and Temu's parent company PDD Holdings to move away from China and have induced some Western companies – including Apple, Dell, Hasbro, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Stanley Black and Decker, Foxconn, Nintendo, BYD Auto, TSMC, Intel, Mazda, Google and Samsung also to move away or diversify.
A larger problem, apart from tariffs, is that China does not have a private sector. According to the United States–China Economic and Security Review Commission:
"China's government has developed numerous avenues through which to monitor corporate affairs and direct nonstate firms and resources toward advancing the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) priorities."
The Chinese government fosters programs to promote companies it calls "little giants" (小巨人) and "single champions" (单项冠军). These firms, although labelled as private, receive direct state backing.
The "little giants" consist of 14,600 small, privately owned companies in "strategic emerging industries such as integrated circuits, new energy, and aerospace."
The "single champions" are made up of companies that have established dominance in international supply chains, and that have focused on research and development and dual-use technologies. Since both "little giants" and "single champions" are state-supported entities, they are, unfortunately, perceived by potential investors as stable investments.
Working with Chinese Companies Directly Supports the CCP
The Chinese Communist Party is the founding and only ruling party of the People's Republic of China. Hence, all Chinese companies directly support the CCP's priorities and ambitions to replace the United States as the world's leading superpower. This plan obviously has little that might be good for the US, its national security, or its interests abroad.
China has openly been pursuing a policy of threatening to take over pro-Western neighbors such as Taiwan, the Philippines, South Korea, the Solomon Islands, India and Japan. In addition, Chinese warships have reportedly been invading Australian airspace and sailing alarmingly close to Australia. The CCP has also recently been trying to make it a "new normal" to have around Taiwan drills that at any time could turn into combat.
Beijing appears to understand that it cannot invade Taiwan without strengthening its economy to be able to fight for a prolonged time. China's set of goals to strengthen the national economy, its 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), stated as its main objective to "cultivate specialized and new 'little giant' enterprises and single- product champion (单项冠军) enterprises in the manufacturing industry."
In the 14th Five Year Plan, the CCP identified the following industries as critical to China's economic development: Artificial intelligence, semiconductors, robotic technology and biotechnology, to name a few.
On March 7, 2025, at the plenary meeting of the People's Liberation Army and the People's Armed Police Force delegation during the annual gathering of the country's top legislature in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, ordered the military "to accelerate efforts in resolving bottlenecks and obstacles in implementing the [five-year] plan, strengthen cross-department, cross-domain, and military-civilian coordination, and improve the making, assessment and implementation of policies."
Notably, Xi has also instructed the Chinese military to be prepared to invade Taiwan by 2027, according to Admiral John Aquilino, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
The United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission, stated in 2021:
"China's government is also now increasing investments in nonstate firms to advance its technology development goals and policy objectives, further obscuring the distinction between state and nonstate."
This means that the CCP's influence gets embedded within firms labeled as private. Hence, foreign entities can find themselves "unknowingly" supporting the CCP's objectives of economic development to promote military modernization and hegemonic ambitions.
Urgent: Revoke China's Permanent Normal Trade Relations Status
It has become increasingly clear that China's plan to take over Taiwan and other neighbors is a question not of "if" but "when." It is therefore crucial to understand that there is no private sector in China.
Investing in China's "private sector" -- effectively the same as its military -- destroys the West's interests, weakens its allies and fast-tracks the CCP in reaching its goals of seizing Taiwan and other neighbors, and possibly triggering a war with the United States. Investing in China's "private sector" underwrites China's expansionist ambitions in Asia and enables it to continue claiming ownership of the South and East China Seas, as well as everything near it, to control world trade.
The United States and its Western allies, for their national security, should immediately restrict cooperation with China, and revoke China's Permanent Normal Trade Relations status. Such actions would immediately make the world a far safer place, as well as further secure the global power of the United States.
