[0xy]

America primarily sells technology. China primarily sells goods.

China is totally free to sell goods into America. China has blockaded America's technology, unless the companies agree to essentially hand over IP so China can steal it (Huawei operated a cash bonus scheme for stolen IP, according to the DoJ).

Does this sound like "free trade"?

[chillacy]

Not just that, even companies willing to play ball and censor information for the local laws end up being operated with local partners like Apple's iCloud (run by AIPO Cloud (Guizhou) Technology Co. Ltd).

[est]

> hand over IP so China can steal it (Huawei operated a cash bonus scheme for stolen IP

Which American company's 5G technology did huawei steal from?

[secondcoming]

I don't think Huawei is being accused of stealing 5G technology.

It's accused of being an espionage arm of the CCP and that having it control communications backbone infrastructure is a bad idea.

[yyyk]

> I don't think Huawei is being accused of stealing 5G technology.

That too:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-07-01/did-china...

[est]

Yes Nortel invented 5G in 2009, when 3G was still undertaking rollout.

[yyyk]

Basic research takes a long time; The technology of today is based on the advances made a decade ago, or even more in the past.

[xvector]

Has TikTok stolen any IP?

[0xy]

Is Facebook available in mainland China? YouTube? Google? Gmail?

[throw33432]

They were available until they stopped complying with China’s data and information laws. They chose to leave.

[cheez]

Don't know why you're getting downvoted but it is lopsided trade.

[rswail]

Lopsided how? Because the US has a trade deficit with China? That's not "lopsided". That just means that the US buys more stuff from China than China buys from the US.

Trump introduced tariffs. They increased costs for US consumers (they pay the tariffs). China lost some exports. In the meantime, China decided to buy soybeans from other nations. The US lost a lot more in exports, requiring government bailouts of farmers. Thus further increased costs to US consumers and taxpayers.

Given this increased sovereign risk of de-facto nationalisation of a foreign owned US company (TikTok et al), why should other foreigners invest in the US?

As a reminder, the US has a net foreign trade deficit of USD400B for 2020 so far. So the US buys $400B more than it sells.

[burfog]

No, they do not pay the tariffs.

When a marketplace transaction is taxed, it really doesn't matter which party has to hand over the money. The buyer and seller will split the cost of the tax according to elasticity. Consider a transaction that is worth $100 in a tax-free situation, using numbers relevant to the US/China tariffs:

Without tax: $100 is transferred from buyer to seller.

Buyer hands over money: The buyer pays $30 to government and $76 to the seller, for a total of $106.

Seller hands over money: The buyer pays that $106 to the seller, who then pays $30 to the government. The seller keeps $76.

You might wonder what would motivate the Chinese seller to reduce his price. He has unavoidable costs like loans. Keeping a factory partially idle is painful. There are fixed costs. He doesn't have the monopoly power to dictate a selling price. He can't force the buyer to buy.