China, like Russia, has lost the reputation of "rational actor" in its policy making. Current leadership is sacrificing everything in name of "stability" aka pa

China, like Russia, has lost the reputation of "rational actor" in its policy making. Current leadership is sacrificing everything in name of "stability" aka party selfpreservation. Usa tolerated unacceptable economic behavior from a WTO member for too long. Cadres had an opportunity to start to "play fair" like a developed nation but squandered it in name of face, short term profits and ethnonationalism showing the world their ambitions . Wall Street, Big Corps and Neoliberals delayed any sensible reaction to chinese Hostility as long they could but with the covid fuckup they lost most "grounds" for appeasement. Economic actors, like textile industries were delocalizing for a few years now due to factor like high cost of labour and uneasiness in doing business (fines, bribes, power outages, tariffs, power tripping bureaucrats, etc...). Not to mention the likehood of Ip theft (aka forced partnerships with local businesses) or blackmail risk you put yourself in doing business in china. The juice aint worth the squeeze now in china