China has been around for a long, long time and has gone through many phases, including the current incarnation. In this time they have done a great many things for humanity. Including, one could argue, hugely reducing the cost of manufactured goods.
You talk about fairly competing like the US does not massively subsidize many, many industries, undercutting other countries. Not to mention some of the stuff it did in the 80's around south America.
And let's not talk about the fact that the US stole a lot of trade secrets and IP during its industrialization from Britain and other countries.
Feeling threatened by another nation going through its industrialization process and iterating upon it is not a good look, IMO, especially when now the glove is on the other hand so to speak.
The problem you describe is reasonable. But this tariff is worse than doing absolutely nothing about it.
Companies have three options:
1. Do nothing in the US except [perhaps] selling the finished product, and use whatever components you want.
2. Use chinese components in US manufacturing.
3. Assemble in the US using no Chinese components.
Given the scenario you've described, presumably #3 > #2 > #1. And right now, almost everything is taking route #1.
So what does this tariff do for companies currently taking route #1? The tariff doesn't affect finished products, so there's no direct impact on them.
If they want to move something to the US, they'll find themselves in #2, the group that's hit with the tariff. Is it a good thing to discourage that?
It also discourages products that are currently america-only from adding chinese components. That might have prevented today's situation if it were enacted in 1980, but it's pretty much irrelevant today.
Copying isn’t cheating but they have spies in the top tech firms in this country. Everywhere in the world that’s cheating. Stealing confidential proprietary anything anywhere in the modern world will send you to jail, whose sending China to jail?
Many would love to see a single US official going to jail for starting wars under false premise, installing puppet regimes and ruining whole ecosystems to support business interests, from banana imports to oil and gas, and cheap clothes.
China has been around for a long, long time and has gone through many phases, including the current incarnation. In this time they have done a great many things for humanity. Including, one could argue, hugely reducing the cost of manufactured goods.
You talk about fairly competing like the US does not massively subsidize many, many industries, undercutting other countries. Not to mention some of the stuff it did in the 80's around south America.
And let's not talk about the fact that the US stole a lot of trade secrets and IP during its industrialization from Britain and other countries.
Feeling threatened by another nation going through its industrialization process and iterating upon it is not a good look, IMO, especially when now the glove is on the other hand so to speak.