China is extremely upset with former White House senior adviser Steve Bannon, to the point of amusement, even.

China claims that Bannon's recent op-ed in the Washington Post is deeply insulting. But what Xi Jinping's regime really hates is how Bannon binds his side of American conservatism to the more internationalist side on China policy.

It's somewhat ironic, considering Bannon's ideological disdain for globalism, that his piece offers a powerful defense of an American international order. While Bannon wrongly believes that U.S. manufacturing jobs can be recovered from China, he is exactly right in identifying the nature of the U.S.-China struggle. That "the world is a house divided — half slave, half free. Trump and Xi are facing off to tip the scales in one direction or the other. One way leads to the benefits of freedom, democracy and free-market capitalism. The other leads to a totalitarian and mercantilist power..."

Bannon continues, "this is a fundamental clash between two radically different economic models."

I would add that it is also a fundamental clash between two radically different models of international order.

Regardless, China really does not like this language. Its Global Times newspaper decried Bannon as having "maliciously smeared" China by calling out its oppression of the Uighur people. China is very sensitive on this issue because an industrial scale concentration camp industry isn't great for foreign investor confidence. The Global Times then declared that "to rational analysts, Bannon is not just radical, but a bit insane."

I don't agree with Bannon on much, but I salute him for writing this and for incurring China's wrath. If Americans of all stripes can join together to reject Chinese imperialism, we will give ourselves a much better chance of retaining the 21st century for the cause and benefit of human freedom. We are embarked on a multi-generational struggle to prevent the subjugation of nations and peoples to Chinese feudal mercantilism. If we fail, the whole world will become poorer and less free.