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Sounds like scaremongering to me. Chinese powers/oligarchs act here quire rationally. Protecting and promoting their own industries has paid them well so far (e

• s_q_b 12y ago
  Protectionism is rational in the same way robbery is rational: only if you can get away with it. And in both cases, the odds are low. "Protecting and promoting their own industries has paid them well..." Protectionism has paid certain members of China's elite very well at the extreme expense of the firms that could actually produce the goods most efficiently. Many of those would-be producers are Americans, and if you think the automotive industry, Hollywood, and SV haven't been howling for retaliatory sanctions for years, you would be very wrong. See e.g. the blacklisting of Huawei gear from US government IT systems. Further protectionism strengthens their hand, and if they get their way, we have open breakdown in trade. That isn't "scaremongering." It is simple fact, confirmed by countless historical examples. The new Chinese leaders are like a man standing on the edge of a cliff saying "Well, every step I've taken thus far in this direction has moved me closer to my goal. Why shall the next be any different?"