As debates over transgender healthcare for minors escalate in the United States, a larger danger quietly looms: China is watching—and seizing the moment.
This week, news broke that the Trump administration’s Department of Justice has launched investigations into doctors who provide gender-affirming care to minors. According to an NBC News report, federal investigators are gathering information about healthcare providers and clinics across multiple states. The legal and cultural battles around transgender youth have become yet another flashpoint in America’s deeply divided society.
While the U.S. wrestles with its own internal conflicts, it is essential for Americans to understand the broader consequences: our divisions weaken us internationally, making it easier for adversaries like China to rise without resistance.
A Nation Distracted
Every hour spent fighting domestic culture wars is an hour not spent strengthening America’s position in the world. As U.S. leaders, corporations, and citizens focus energy on heated domestic disputes, China continues its strategic advance—economically, militarily, and technologically.
Beijing is investing heavily in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and quantum computing. It is expanding its influence across Asia, Africa, and even Latin America. While Americans debate healthcare access for marginalized groups, China methodically builds alternative global alliances that bypass traditional U.S.-led institutions.
China’s Strategy: Exploit Division
China understands a fundamental truth: a divided America is a weakened America. Beijing has used information operations, social media campaigns, and diplomatic maneuvering to subtly exacerbate U.S. divisions, encouraging conflict between political, social, and ethnic groups.
By amplifying controversial issues, including LGBTQ+ rights, race relations, and pandemic policies, Chinese-backed online networks aim to inflame tensions. Their goal is not to side with one American faction or another—it is to erode trust in American institutions altogether.
The longer Americans fight among themselves, the harder it becomes to recognize and respond to external threats.
Freedom Requires Focus
Freedom of speech and vigorous debate are hallmarks of American democracy. However, when internal conflicts spiral into widespread distrust, they create vulnerabilities that foreign adversaries are eager to exploit.
While it is necessary to have serious discussions about healthcare, civil rights, and the role of government, Americans must not lose sight of the bigger picture: the United States’ global leadership—and the freedoms we enjoy—are under real threat from authoritarian regimes like China.
China’s government does not believe in the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals. In fact, it actively censors LGBTQ+ content, suppresses free speech, and punishes dissent. It is deeply ironic that while Americans fight about how to protect vulnerable communities, China stands ready to impose a worldview that has no tolerance for diversity at all.
A Call for Unity and Vigilance
America must remain a place where difficult conversations happen—but we must also be aware that these discussions do not happen in a vacuum. They occur in a world where hostile powers seek to exploit every American weakness.
The real danger is not the existence of debate, but the inability to recognize when debate becomes division—and when division becomes decline.
In facing critical issues like transgender healthcare, Americans should work toward solutions rooted in compassion, legality, and respect. At the same time, we must not allow domestic struggles to blind us to the external challenges that threaten the very foundation of American democracy.
China is not waiting for the United States to solve its internal problems. It is advancing its global position every single day.
If Americans are too divided to notice, we may wake up one day and find that the world has changed—and not in our favor.
