The new president’s first act in office should be to sanction Chinese banks and companies for busting sanctions. So far, the Obama administration has not named any Chinese entity pursuant to the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016, enacted in February. Nor has it gone after Chinese entities for doing business with the regime after the June 1 designation of North Korea as a “primary money laundering concern” under the Patriot Act.

We Have Been Engaging the Wrong China

American policy since the early 1970s has been to integrate China into the international system of laws, rules, resolutions and treaties. The hope was that Beijing, as it became more powerful, would see that it had a stake in that system and help defend it.

This strategy has failed. As China has grown more powerful, it has acted to destabilize that system. The generous policy of engagement, practiced by the United States and most every other nation, has strengthened a regime that looks increasingly dangerous.

We need to learn something we knew last century: the nature of regimes matters. An illiberal communist state is unlikely to accept a liberal international system. The first thing for Washington to do, therefore, is reconsider its China engagement policy from top to bottom.

That reconsideration should result in two immediate changes. First, we should start engaging the democratic state we have shunned since the 1970s, Taiwan. Work with Taiwan, and the United States will gain an ally to help maintain peace and stability in the region, build support for endangered principles of freedom and democracy, and show Chinese leaders it no longer fears them. It’s always better to engage democrats than autocrats.

Second, we need to fully engage the Chinese people. China is unstable because the Chinese are having an extended argument with an insecure Communist Party. It is in our interest, from so many different perspectives, to talk to those who might be running the country in the not-too-distant future. That includes democracy activists, homeowners, religious adherents, Tibetans, Uighurs and workers—and the millions in Hong Kong who are obviously fed up with Beijing’s rule.

We have, over the course of decades, been engaging the wrong China.

Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China. Follow him on Twitter @GordonGChang.

Image: China’s J-15 jet fighter prototype. Wikimedia Commons/Simon Yang