> By contrast, the consequences for China will be catastrophic. They will have trouble finding enough food for their citizens, tens of millions of people will l

> By contrast, the consequences for China will be catastrophic. They will have trouble finding enough food for their citizens, tens of millions of people will lose their jobs, their current account will go negative and their currency will plummet. This claim is unsubstantiated. China is a really big country, with a whole lot of natural resources. As this article itself points out, the US imports more from China than we export to them. The article says that if the US stops trading with China, between 10 and 12 million American workers will be out of a job but will find new jobs as the American economy adapts to sourcing things internally. It then says that tens of millions of Chinese workers will be out of a job... and doesn't conclude that they will find new jobs as the Chinese economy adapts to sourcing things internally. What's different about the two cases? Also, I might remind you that the consequence of China using enslaving a minority is that they have a bunch of slaves. Not only do they have the resources to rapidly and painfully expand their agricultural capabilities, they'll have the perfect excuse for it. The problem with dealing with China is not (precisely) hat the Western powers that be think that that what they're doing is okay. It's that we have (through our own past mistakes) put ourselves in a position where we have no meaningful leverage to stop them other than a third world war. (But also, the average Western politician worried about China isn't worried about genocide, they're worried about losing 5G contracts.)