[tepidandroid]

A huge portion of the profits China has obtained from becoming America's manufacturing base has gone directly back to America in the form of US bond purchases. This has been the case going back to its inception into the WTO in 2001 [1, ex. 6]. The American economy, and thus its middle class, have directly benefitted from this in the form of greater and cheaper capital liquidity.

In addition, this deficit you speak of (that has been characterized by Trump as "stealing" from America, a laughable notion), actually shrinks to almost nothing when adjusted for US goods sold in China [1, ex.16, 17]. This is comparing four categories of goods and services exchanged between the US and China (1: services sold through subsidiaries, 2: services imports, 3: goods through subsidiaries and 4: goods through trade). This is a much more complete and honest comparison. Trump has for some reason decided to only focus on the last point (goods sold through trade).

The US sells 67B worth of services to China through subsidiaries, 56B of services imports, 213B of goods through subsidiaries and 112B of goods through trade. In other words, adjusted for U.S sales of goods and services in China, the trade deficit actually amounts to a U.S _surplus_ of something in the ballpark 20B a year.

Where is the stealing? Where is the zero-sum "wealth transfer"?

[1] https://www.kkr.com/sites/default/files/KKR_White_Paper_51-1...