Yea, it's probably true that it incentivizes China to develop it's own tech (most notably super computer chips) but to develop something from square-one takes a

Yea, it's probably true that it incentivizes China to develop it's own tech (most notably super computer chips) but to develop something from square-one takes a lot of resources. It's a lot easier to reverse engineer something you bought and use it to build your own then it is to develop something from a concept. If everyone has to spend their time reinventing the wheel, they're not doing other things. As far as the trade imbalance, the things that would fall under ITAR (the only goods that are significantly restricted) are not particularly significant on a global trade scale. Yes, the US could sell a few billion dollars worth of F-22 jets to China, but that still wouldn't make a dent, and to acquire the tech, China would only have to buy one.