[cletus]

It should be clear to all but the most biased that:

1. Chinese companies are extensions of the state. This is not true to the same degree for US or European companies; and

2. China deliberately restricts access to the Chinese market so no foreign company will "win" there. It will always be a Chinese company. This is why companies kowtowing the China is so pointless.

Trade is about reciprocity. Separation from the state is a national security issue. China is not playing by the same rules as everyone else is. The only shocking thing about this is that it's taken what is otherwise the worst president in America's history (and someone who, with his family, should probably all be in jail for various reasons) to demand reciprocity and to point out the obvious.

Yet the carrot of the Chinese market remains for Western companies and those companies have pressured (if not outright bought) their governments to play along in a completely rigged game they cannot win.

[spanhandler]

This is pretty much exactly my take on this, down to the assessment that shaking up Chinese trade policy is just about the only halfway sensible thing Trump has done. Are we crazy or has most of the rest of HN somehow missing the point of all this? The discussions about this here have been perplexing.

[Wolfenstein98k]

Most people still fall for the line that Trump only rags on China because he's racist, and think that China's govt is basically the same as other govts.