The U.S.-Mexican border and Communist China are completely unrelated, right? Wrong.

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One of the most politically incendiary issues in America today is the state of our border with Mexico, and understandably so. When the economics of cheap labor and the concern for national security clash – with the political gas can of racial tension thrown in for good measure – the result is almost guaranteed to be explosive. Many in the anti-Communist community, particularly within its “right wing,” are deeply concerned about the border, but even they consider the two issues as separate. That is a mistake. In fact, Communist China’s contribution to, and exploitation of, the border fiasco may very well lead to a solution on this issue without fanning racial flames.

Let’s begin with an examination of Communist China’s role causing the migration of people north. Whatever one thinks of the increasing stream of illegal/undocumented immigrants from Mexico (not all of whom are Mexican), nearly all agree that the Mexican economy’s weakness plays a role. What is not as well known is the damage Communist China has done to the Mexican economy in recent years. Ever since the U.S. granted Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) to the Communist China in 2000, its exports to the U.S. have surged, in many cases replacing Mexican exports. The upshot of Communist substitution for Mexican goods in the American and Mexican economies (more on the latter later) has cost Mexico an average of 100,000 jobs a year over the last half-decade. Mexico’s economy simply can’t handle that kind of annual body blow.

The solution to Communist China’s crowding out of Mexican goods in the U.S. is roughly the same as it is for American goods – cancellation of PNTR, a currency-corrective tariff against the Communists’ deliberately devalued renminbi, and, of course, helping the Chinese people liberate themselves from the Communists, which would end their use of prison labor and their refusal to allow for independent labor unions. While these actions would make many “free-traders” uncomfortable, it must be remembered that Communist China is not conducting its trade policies as part of an attempt to enter the world economy (as, for example, India is doing), but rather as part of its anti-American foreign policy that is fueling the Second Cold War. We now know that the Communists are not only damaging America and its Asian allies, but Mexico as well.

So clearly, the folks who are worried about the influx of people from Mexico should be worried about Communist China, but why would the reverse necessarily be true? That comes from the lesser-known, but badly damaging, traffic that goes trough the porous border from north to south – Communist Chinese contraband goods going into Mexico.

Although Mexico can’t do much about Communist Chinese goods replacing their exports in America – that’s our job, see above – it actually does have strong tariffs on many Communist Chinese imports into its own country. Unfortunately, Communist China has found a way around that, as was discovered by the Washington Post:

Customs officials said the typical route for Chinese contraband is for goods such as pajamas, pants, bras and tennis shoes to be smuggled into California ports by ship, then driven over the U.S.-Mexico border in trucks. Mexican officials said the goods are sometimes repackaged to make them appear to be from Pakistan or another countries (sic) whose goods are subject to lower tariffs or none at all to enter Mexico. And sometimes, officials said, a customs agent is paid to look the other way.

In other words, the same lax border used by millions of people to enter the United States is also used by the Communists to send their goods – illegally – into Mexico. While one cannot keep detailed statistics of this shadow trade, “The volume of Chinese contraband is huge; private industry estimates say 50 percent of clothes and shoes sold in Mexico are made in China” (Post).

For the anti-Communist community, the implications are clear. Communist China’s exploitation of the Mexican economy is directly related to the troubled U.S.-Mexican border. Anyone worried about American consumers funding the Communist military should be just as concerned about Mexican consumers doing the same thing, although admittedly on a smaller scale. A tightened border can not only save Mexican jobs, but can also greatly reduce this Communist income stream.

However, this issue goes well beyond the need for anti-Communists to pay at least some attention to the border. It also provides evidence that a tightened border – so long as it is just as stringent on Communist Chinese goods leaving the U.S. as it is on people entering it – could have a political constituency within Mexico itself, and if the estimates quoted above are accurate, said constituency could be far larger than anyone can imagine. It could even lead to outright cooperation from Mexico City on a tightened border; it would certainly remove the myth that Americans worried about the border issue are somehow anti-Hispanic.

Yours truly had paid little attention to the issue of the border until September 11, 2001. That day changed plenty of minds. However, this is about more than simply the fate of the United States, as important as that is to me and my fellow Americans. This is, once again, about the Chinese Communist Party doing anything to preserve its power, and in the Second Cold War, it has already made the Mexican economy a subsequent casualty. America – and Mexico – will never be secure until the day China is free. If the two neighbors can understand that, and recognize the benefits a vigilant eye over their shared border can be for both of them, that day will come much sooner.