Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, argues that China, not Russia, is our main foe in the international arena. Maybe so, but Putin shouldn’t get a free pass just because he’s the junior partner.

Hawley: The United States is better off without Ukraine joining NATO. But when I sent a letter to Secretary of State Tony Blinken last week explaining why, the usual Washington suspects – the people who delivered two failed wars, botched the evacuation in Afghanistan, and enabled the rise of China – had their usual meltdown.

The neocons called me “evil.” The White House said I was “parroting Russian talking points.” That last accusation is particularly rich coming from an administration that has stuffed dollars in Vladimir Putin’s pockets by green-lighting his energy pipeline and made weakness their calling card. But there’s a deeper issue at stake.

American foreign policy should be based on what’s best for preserving American freedom and American prosperity, not expanding an empire of “liberal order” around the world. Too many in the Washington cartel – of both parties – have forgotten this. With China rising, now is the time to get it right.

For decades, the Washington foreign policy establishment has aimed to extend a “new world order” of liberal values across the globe. The phrase belongs to former President George H.W. Bush, but the project has been bipartisan. The idea was that the United States would usher in an era of global, multilateral cooperation, underwritten by American military might. This new global, liberal order would bring peace to the world and prosperity to the United States – it was to be, in the famous words of one commentator, “the end of history.”

That project has not succeeded. Instead, Americans have spent decades fighting endless wars in the Middle East under the banner of democracy promotion and surrendered millions of working-class jobs to China. Thousands of American have lost their lives, with tens of thousands more wounded. The Washington elite have shelled out trillions on nation-building abroad while families and towns in this nation have languished, denied industry and good-paying jobs.

Americans deserve better. They deserve a foreign policy that protects their interests. Above all, that means preventing any other nation from imposing its will on us. Today, the principal threat comes from China. Beijing took advantage of America’s adventures in the Middle East to grow its strength. Now it towers over Asia, an economic and military giant ready for conquest.

And conquest is precisely what it seeks. Xi Jinping has been clear: hegemony is Beijing’s goal, first in Asia, then the world. If Beijing succeeds, it will be able to harness Asia’s resources to further propel its rise. The shadow of its military will grow longer than it already is, covering not just Asia but other regions, including ours. All the while, Beijing will be able to restrict Americans’ access to the Asian markets that our farmers, workers and manufacturers depend on for their livelihoods.

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The United States cannot afford to be shut out of Asia in the years ahead. Nor can we afford to allow Beijing to dictate terms for market access, knowing it will use that leverage to control not just how we trade abroad, but what we say, do and think here at home. Still less can we tolerate a future where the Chinese military patrols openly in our own backyard.