Much the same way that the Nazis invasion of Poland in the 20th century, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) assaulted the world with a biological agent. Instead of Panzer divisions rolling down the streets of Warsaw, Communist China’s invisible biological warfare has stricken the world with economic and human misery, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and forcing millions into unemployment lines globally.

Expansionist China is clearly a military, economic, and health threat to the world. But it’s reckoning time for the Chinese communist dictatorship. Washington should exert diplomatic, economic, and military pressure on Beijing that will put China’s dictator Xi Jingping, and the evil and corrupt CCP under enormous strain.

Here are four suggestions to counter China’s biological, military and economic threats:

Economic Distancing: Seize China’s U.S. Treasury Notes

For America, the China virus attack was a 21st century medical Pearl Harbor, inflicting tens of thousands of casualties and placing our healthcare system under enormous strain. To counterattack China’s criminal negligence and mishandling of the coronavirus epidemic, the U.S. needs to hit our communist comrades where it hurts the most -- their pocketbooks.

China owns approximately $1.07 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds, according to the Treasury Department. The United States government should seize the Chinese treasury obligations that Beijing holds in their name, and inform the CCP that this is a down payment for the death of tens of thousands of American citizens and the economic devastation Beijing has unleased on the U.S. economy. And the U.S. should encourage Canada, the U.K., Japan, Switzerland, and other allies to do the same.

Academic Distancing: Shutter China’s Confucius Institutes in the U.S.

The nefarious CCP pumps over $10 billion into its Confucius Institute propaganda machine, funding over 500 Confucius Institutes on high schools, colleges, and university campuses around the world. In the U.S., there are over 100 Confucius Institutes on high school, college, and university campuses, receiving over $150 million from the Chinese communist dictatorship, according to National Association of Scholars.

The Chinese Ministry of Education, which is run by the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department, infiltrates high schools, colleges, and universities, brainwashing American students into accepting communist China propaganda, textbooks and operating funds to enhance its own image abroad. Beijing-funded Confucius Institutes lack transparency, threaten academic freedom and give the Chinese communist despots access to the U.S. education system that China does not extend to American programs, according to a 2019 report by the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

All Confucius Institutes in the United States should be shut down, and all Chinese “teachers” deported. America must end China’s unfettered access to our research centers and universities. Also, the Confucius Institute U.S. Center, based in Washington, D.C., should be shuttered.

Seize and Sell all CCP Property in the U.S.

The Chinese Communist Party is our enemy, so why don’t we treat them that way? Let’s start by seizing all CCP property in the United States and selling it as reparations for the damage they have caused to our economy. The U.S. federal government should impound and sell all CCP property in the U.S., including companies, real estate, bank accounts, aircraft, ocean-going vessels, and all other CCP assets in the USA.

Bring Back “Made in the USA”

The U.S. federal government should pay U.S. manufactures to leave China and return to the USA. It’s time to bring U.S. manufacturing back home. Americans want to buy high-quality “Made in the USA” products; not cheap Chinese junk that breaks right away. To encourage U.S. manufactures to make products in the United States, the U.S. federal government should offer companies a 100 percent federal tax relief for 10-years if they open and produce products here in the USA.

It won’t be easy or painless, but America ought to fundamentally reconsider its relationship with China. It is imperative that we have a “hard decoupling” of the U.S.-China relationship, according to political scientist Andrew A. Michta, writing in the American Interest. It’s time to reduce our reliance on China as a manufacturing base.

Only one adversary poses a truly mortal challenge to the United States; that adversary is China.

Now that the Chinese Communist Party has murdered tens of thousands of people globally, the U.S. and its allies are being held hostage by the criminals that run the CCP. China is repeatedly singled out for its unfair trade practices, currency manipulation, support for rogue regimes like North Korea and Iran, proliferation of nuclear arms, cyberattacks on free societies, widespread human rights abuse at home, and undermining international institutions. And now, you can add bioterrorism to the list.

It’s time to cut our ties with Communist China. This is a very dangerous time for the world. We should expect that the CCP will become more repressive domestically, aggressive internationally, and confrontational in the wake of the China virus.

And one final thought: Let’s make the China plague the last Chinese import into the U.S.A.

Octavio Nuiry is a former New Orleans Times Picayune columnist. He can be reached at onuiry@gmail.com or (562) 537-2901.