[rsanek]

> We need to put as much effort into helping every other country develop and thrive - and by doing that we'll create many more customers for the products/services produced in our own countries, and everyone can end up richer.

this was the logic in letting eg China into the WTO and allowing them to become such a big trading partner. turns out, this doesn't necessarily result in liberalization (see Germany's experience with Russia for another example).

we should only be seeking to shift trade from repressive regimes to democracies, not working with everyone equally.

[axkdev]

I do not disagree with your point, except, given the current state of US, it is hard to describe it as not repressive. I understand it's a spectrum. I checked on Wikipedia - abortion is legal in China. That's one right that many US women don't have. Which does not mean that China is a free country, but just to gain some perspective. The notion of some place being a dictatorship was many times weaponized to launch invasions and economic sanctions that left that place broken and impoverished.

[stickfigure]

This is a false equivalence. Whatever you or I personally feel about abortion, its legality in the United States is set through approximately democratic processes. Not perfect by any means, but it very roughly reflects the will of the people - sharply divided, with many geographic concentrations.

The will of the people in China is unknown. There is only the will of the CCP, and increasingly, one person.

[ruszki]

Working less with China makes the possibility of a war higher. Obama wanted to have a trading framework which prevents a mutual degradation of trade on America’s term, but Trump didn’t want that, and Americans voted to this again.

I think genie is out of the bottle, and it’s too late to prevent it. But the logical step would have been what Obama wanted. Now, we have dark times ahead of us. These forced shifts in trade just make the process to these bad times quicker. Nobody really benefits them, just make the war a possibility sooner. If not a full out war, but a new Cold War at least.