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by elfexec 2362 days ago
Goodness, you can count on the weirdiest analogies on social media when it comes to china. But I guess it's par for the course in any trade war.

What china did was nothing special. It wasn't revolutionary. It was what every industrial power today did - from the US in the 1800s to germany and japan and the asian tigers like south korea and taiwan did. Protectionism + foreign investment + manufacturing.

The united states created the blueprint for success in the 1800s. All the smart nations have copied it and gotten successful.

One of the first things the US did was to place tariffs to protect local industry. And for 100 years, protectionism was how the US rose from a relatively insignificant nation to the largest economy in the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protectionism_in_the_United_St...

Without the tariffs and protectionism, the US industries would have been owned by britain, france, etc. Or maybe it was like a boa constrictor. I don't know.
4 comments
true_religion 2362 days ago
US tarrifs were originally intended to hurt Britain, as the US had recently rebelled against them.

The tarrifs then increased during every war the US had with Britain.

It’s no surprise that the US talks of trade wars, due to the way its history of tarrif is entangled with warfare, and dislike of the nations a tarrif is aimed against,

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bernawil 2361 days ago
It was quite literally a rallying point for Lincon and a reason for the civil war. Southerners wanted free trade to export tobacco and cotton. Northerners wanted tariffs and protection for their industries (both to make their factories more competitive against European manufactures as to get cheaper raw materials from American farmers).
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raverbashing 2362 days ago
A lot of countries apply protectionist measures and have stagnating industries, protectionism is not enough to win the game.
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NicoJuicy 2362 days ago
He's addressing the issue that China joined the WTO, but is not following up on their promises since >20 years.
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zzzzzzzza 2361 days ago
you are wrong on foreign investment.. what you mean is domestic bank credit (see size of china's banking system)
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