The joys of going with the low bid

I don't know if the
situation is as dire as they make out, but giving China the ability to turn off some of our military communications seems strangely trusting. We've never been entirely self-sufficient, but how do we build avionics if parts can't arrive through an embattled South China Sea?

One obvious side effect of outsourcing so much of our supply is that our critical interests spread more widely than otherwise, demanding greater hegemony and involving us in more disputes. Which requires a bigger and more expensive army, which seems to militate against any cost savings.