China is producing building and putting out to see warships at a rate that puts us to shame.

How do we let this happen? You said that the Rand Corporation, you know, was sounding the alarms.

And was no one listening? I think it was part of this Polyanish belief that we could have it all, that we could enjoy a peace dividend from the Cold War where we could invest less in our own defense, but engage the Chinese Communist Party diplomatically and economically, telling ourselves that they would just have to change politically over time.

And the military threat would just magically take care of itself.

We thought that we could live in a world without trade-offs, that we could maximize our economic prosperity and maximize our security with zero trade-off between the two.

That's not reality. That's not the world we live in

in 2025. Michael Sobelik, you may recognize he's been on this show a few times. And we're

happy to have him back to talk about TikTok, the Nippon Steel acquisition of U.S. steel that did not happen,

and other China-related matters. He is our expert always and great insight to what may change

now with China and the United States with President Trump back in the White House. But let me remind

you, please subscribe. Just hit that subscribe button. Never miss an episode of the Michelle Tofoya podcast. We love having you with us.

You can also subscribe to my substack and, you know, follow us. Twitter, Instagram,

Facebook. We're there. We're there everywhere. So just hit that subscribe button. It's free.

It's just absolutely no obligation.

Michael Sobolik will talk about TikTok next.

Happy New Year, Michael.

It's great to see you.

Welcome back.

Great to talk to you again, Michelle.

Thanks for having me.

There's been a lot that's transpired since the last time we spoke, most notably the election.

And when it comes to talking about China, whoever's in the White House really, really matters.

...