At This Rate, America Will Soon Be China's Vassal State

Not only is China projected to have the world's biggest economy by 2030, according to the U.S. National Intelligence Council, but they may own everything in the United States by then, too.

That's because - according to data from Dealogic – Chinese investors bought big pieces of a record number of industries in the United States just so far this year. With still a few weeks to go in 2012, China has already spent more than $10 billion acquiring U.S. companies – far exceeding their previous record-spending binge in 2007, which was nearly $9 billion. Following in the footsteps of Saudi, British, German, and French companies, Chinese companies, many state-owned, have bought up everything from electric car battery manufacturers to movie theater chains. This is all the direct result of failed so-called "free trade" policies. Flushed with hundreds of billions of dollars in extra cash - the flip-side of our trade deficits - China can use that money to buy up American industries one-by-one, until one day we're all going to work at the foreign-owned car manufacturer. Or we'll be buying groceries at the foreign-owned supermarket. Or going to see a movie at a foreign-owned theater. Americans have to accept the reality of a new world, in which the United States isn't the only economic superpower. But, Americans don't have to just stand by and watch our domestic economy be sold off to overseas business tycoons. It's time to ditch so-called free trade. Let's protect those industries at home that employ Americans and generate wealth for this nation.