It seems irrational because your framing is wrong here. The reason these measures seem random and poorly thought through is because it’s only in the last ~10 ye

It seems irrational because your framing is wrong here. The reason these measures seem random and poorly thought through is because it’s only in the last ~10 years that the US has even started paying attention to the supposed competition from China. If it was actually being taken seriously, the level of government and industry action would look similar to the Cold War. We aren’t even at 1% of that yet, and so the actions now are largely disorganized, unhurried, and “whack a mole.”