This is true but it is also rewriting the past. The WTO was designed to encourage free trade. The problem with free trade is that countries with developed indu

This is true but it is also rewriting the past. The WTO was designed to encourage free trade. The problem with free trade is that countries with developed industries will crash those that don't have developed industries. Basically, there is little incentive to join if you are still developing since it will kill your local industry. What the WTO did is a compromise. Countries that are developing get special exceptions that expire once the country reaches certain milestones. The US was one of the founding members that helped to write these rules and the rules were designed to largely help US companies. The exceptions allow developing countries to put rules in place to help local industry. From what I can tell China looks like it will move from a "developing" country into a "developed" country sometime in the next 5 to 10 years (based on rules that the US made when it helped setup the WTO) but now it thinks that it should happen sooner. If they started the trade war by following rules that the US helped to write then ... I don't know what I think about that ... https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/devel_e/devel_e.htm https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/devel_e/devel_e.htm