I'm by no means a trump supporter, but let's play devil's advocate here. Suppose that China's leadership had a long term plan to build up their manufacturing b

I'm by no means a trump supporter, but let's play devil's advocate here. Suppose that China's leadership had a long term plan to build up their manufacturing base while wrecking ours. So they set up a monetary policy to keep their own wages suppressed and their goods cheap and they heavily subsidize the industries that they want to establish. American corporations go along with this since in the short term it allows them to bust their unions and reduce labor costs. And it's still US companies that own many of the Chinese factories, so from the CEO's point of view they haven't lost anything. Then years later when the job is done and the industries in question have been captured, the Chinese government kindly informs the us companies that they no long own the plants, they have been nationalized. How else could the us respond other than by its own protectionist policies?