One of the most dangerous low-level conflicts in the world right now is the fight over the South China Sea, and if a war breaks out there, it could tank the American economy.
Just in case you're unfamiliar with the intricacies of East Asian geopolitics, here's a little refresher as to what's going on: After decades of more or less peaceful coexistence with its neighbors, China has, over the past few years, started to stake its claims to the waterways off its southern coast.
The problem, though, is that China isn't the only country with claims to the South China Sea -- Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines also claim parts of this strategically important body of water as their own. But the Chinese are doing everything in their power to make sure they're the top dogs in the region.
They've even gone so far as to build fake island chains by dumping billions of tons of dirt on top of reefs and in shallow waters so that they can then declare that "new land" as Chinese territory and use it to strengthen their maritime claims.
America, which has its own strategic interests in the region as well as mutual defense pacts with the Philippines and Japan, has tried to keep China in check, but so far this hasn't done much.
It wasn't supposed to be this way.
As Barry C. Lynn of the New America Foundation pointed out in a recent piece for Reuters, back in the 1990s, supporters of so-called free trade told us that opening up our economy to Chinese goods would "liberalize" China.
They said it would make China more willing to engage peacefully with the rest of the international community. But 20 years later, it's pretty obvious that the exact opposite has happened.
China is now more aggressive than ever, and it's bullying its neighbors and largely ignoring America's objections. And that's because the Chinese know there's nothing we can do to stop them without destroying ourselves in the process.
Thanks to so-called free trade, our economy and our ability to function as a nation is now hugely dependent on China.
