[mschuster91]

> If they aren't allowed to compete, local industries will never have an incentive to improve.

Neither Europe nor the US can compete with the level of disdain for the environment, labor laws and poverty that China brings to the table. Wages alone make anything made in China so cheap that, for mass-market goods, competing against China (or its upcoming competitors in the race to the bottom) is impossible.

[StopDisinfo910]

> Neither Europe nor the US can compete with the level of disdain for the environment, labor laws and poverty that China brings to the table.

The issue is entirely subsidies at this point.

Labour costs have been steadily rising for the past decades and significant poverty hasn't been an issue for a long time. Emission wise, China is strictly ahead of the USA when you look per capita (unsurprisingly, they are not an oil producer).

China is not in a race to the bottom. Their hdi has been steadily climbing. They are economically more or less in the same position that Japan was in the 80s before the Plaza accord but with less prosperity, on the verge of becoming a developed country.

[FirmwareBurner]

>The issue is entirely subsidies at this point.

Which is a moot point because European manufacturers also received insane subsidies form their governments in the past.

The issue is China has been innovating in EVs hardcore for 15+ years while European manufactures kept pushing diesels and cutting costs with their suppliers and were only making EVs to shut up the green hippies, but were never committed to them, and now they've been caught with their pants down unable to compete on price nor on technology.

They got fat, lazy and complacent thinking their brand names would carry them.

[StopDisinfo910]

> Which is a moot point because European manufacturers also received insane subsidies form their governments in the past.

There is no external arbiter here to call it even and declare it moot. The WTO was supposed to somewhat be that but has been completely defanged by non cooperation. Every country is sovereign regarding both how it subsidies its companies and how it taxes imports.

The European Union can both support its manufacturers and be unhappy about China doing the same.

> They got fat, lazy and complacent thinking their brand names would carry them.

Sure, but strategic inadequecy of the local companies doesn't necessarily prevent countries from wanting to protect their manufacturing sector. It's a lot of jobs from Germany and the value chain is split between a lot of small subcontractors injecting a lot of money in their local economy.

Having said that, the future is not necessarily a completely black and white alternative between punitive tariffs fully blocking more efficient Chinese companies à la Trump and a fully free market.

There is plenty of space for agreements involving companies partnership, partial technological transfers, bringing part of the value chain closer to the final consumer. China has been really smart at this game with the mandatory JV with a local partner for getting access to their market. Maybe it's time we start using the same playbook.

[FirmwareBurner]

>Neither Europe nor the US can compete with the level of disdain for the environment, labor laws and poverty that China brings to the table

Why haven't western governments and companies brought this up as an issue when they moved our jobs to China 30 years ago forcing us to buy our stuff but made in China while their profits skyrocketed? And bear in mind Chinese pollution, wages and living standards were way worse back then than today.

It feels incredibly hypocritical for western companies to cry about these things NOW, right when the Chinese companies have started eating their lunch on their home turf, while they rode the gravy train for 30 years. It's almost as if they wanted to have their cake and eat it too but now have to reap what they sow and they don't like it.

[mschuster91]

> Why haven't western governments and companies brought this up as an issue when they moved our jobs to China 30 years ago forcing us to buy our stuff but made in China while their profits skyrocketed?

Our people loved it for the first few years because a lot of stuff became cheaper (or affordable at all), our governments loved it because now someone else would have to deal with toxic waste, and our companies and especially their owners made untold billions of profit that they were allowed to keep.

By the time China was strong enough to begin the "extinguish" phase of their 20 year economic plan, and the Western nations could no longer hide or deny the issues, it was far too late.

[hulitu]

> It's almost as if they have to reap what they sow and they don't like it.

They do reap what they sow. The automotive industry is a victim of its own stupidity. They lobbied for features until the cars became so expensive that nobody buys them.

[LoganDark]

> They lobbied for features until the cars became so expensive that nobody buys them.

Dealerships still try to sell people on financing and that makes them so much money.

[LoganDark]

So what if someone living on Chinese wages wouldn't be able to afford American goods? The equivalent Chinese goods are perfectly affordable for them. You seemingly forget that China is a self-sufficient economy. It's not like people are working 16 hours a day to afford an apartment like in the US. Apartments in China can be as low as USD $400 a month or less. Try running your wage and poverty calculations with that?

[fransworst]

China has lower levels of extreme poverty than the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentag... (percentage living off of less than 2.65USD a day).

They also have lower per capita emissions than the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_di...