"decoupling" tends to be how it's described in media, but every day people know exactly what it is which is "protectionism" (as if that's necessarily a bad word

"decoupling" tends to be how it's described in media, but every day people know exactly what it is which is "protectionism" (as if that's necessarily a bad word). I'm also unsure about your comment about Southeast Asia competing with rich countries on industrial goods. It seems to me it's more specifically about China and not so much other countries in Southeast Asia. I wouldn't disagree with your offhand comment about the 90s and such and the US, EU, and Japan. But I'm not really sure what the point of it is given that countries such as China (not the only one) have maintained protectionist policies. Since many didn't go along with the idea of free trade and the theory that free trade would open up global markets and raise everyone's living standard (which was probably just marketing from those who stood to profit) you can't then blame the US, EU, Japan, or others for reverting back to more protectionist policies to be in line with how most other countries tend to operate. Hey we should all do this thing that stands to benefit everyone, but we all have to do it Starts doing it Hey we all have to do it or it won't work No change Ok fine we're not going to do it then Repercussions/results/etc.