Are western companies able to freely compete in China? Last I checked, no, they need local partners at best, or are blocked completely at worst. And not just American but any outside company.
What their government does in regards to local industry is effectively what donald trump is attempting to do with the US economy. Except they do it well.
I consider you as a victim of the brainwashing by your main stream media.
there are tons of western cars on Chinese roads, tesla was given free land and close to interest free loan to build its factory in Shanghai. there are numerous apple shops in China. guess how many Chinese cars are driving on US roads, how many Huawei phones are being sold in the US.
if you are open to the idea of jumping out of your comfort zone of your favourite brainwashing media, some westerner actually went to China and counted every single car at an intersection for 30 minutes with all brands summarised. over 40% are western cars.
It's benefiting from the globalized market without freely competing in it. It gives them a massive edge in many industries and the world couldn't say no because of cheap manufacturing.
And certainly hostile when you add currency manipulation onto it as well.
>It's benefiting from the globalized market without freely competing in it.
Ha, very rich criticism considering the US economy and stock market has been benefiting 1000x more from said "globalized market without freely competing in it", by printing money and exporting its inflation across the world with dampened consequences domestically, then using said printed money like liquid gold to buy valuable assets around the world (like real estate and innovative companies) thanks to its status as a reserve currency (something Charles De Gaulle complained about since the 1950s), a unique US cheat code enforced thought force via its massive military.
>And certainly hostile when you add currency manipulation onto it as well.
Again, very rich criticism considering the US's abusing its status as the reserve currency for its own benefit, see above.
This is now limited to only some restricted industries: https://www.ndrc.gov.cn/xxgk/zcfb/ghxwj/202504/P020250424307... Yes, the list is long, but it's a significant improvement to the before times when all industries were off limits save for a few exceptions where foreign investment was allowed. Notably, the car industry has been mostly unrestricted for a few years now.
Internet services? Yes, you need a domestic partner, because you'll disseminate information to the public.
If you're in the automobile industry, you can import cars to China. China was Porsche's largest market until 2025, and all Porsches are imported. It used to be that a Chinese partner is needed to manufacture cars in China, but Tesla did not need one, and that policy was dropped. Anyway, it's nowhere close to the complete ban the US placed on Chinese cars.
In many other industries, you can create a foreign-owned company and operate in China.
Giga Shanghai is the exception the proves the rule. It's one of the few, if only, foreign businesses that operate without a joint venture with a local company.
Again, nobody forces you to open your business or manufacture your stuff in China. Plenty of companies do not, like Google.
Companies abided to ruthless Chinese rules because they were greedy and wanted to exploit the Chinese slave labor and also get access to Chinese market, but the CCP didn't put a gun to their head and forced them to come to China, they decided that themselves for the sake of the holy shareholder growth. And now, 2 decades after you've made your money, you're complaining over a consensual arrangement?
And trade is always gonna be asymmetric, with rules in foreign countries that don't exist in the US. That's why the EU fines US companies regularly. China isn't much different. You want to operate in China, then you gotta follow the CCP rules. You don't? Then just leave. Easy.
Lots of countries are like that though. America has an unusually free system where anyone can do anything for better or worse, but Walmart failed in Germany by ignoring all the local processes like employee protections. (But I hear Aldi is taking over the UK!)
>blocking Facebook while exporting Tiktok is a hostile trade imbalance
The US also threatened to block tiktok unless China sold it to a local US oligarch(the Oracle guy). The US is no saint here. And good luck getting people to shed a tear for China blocking Facebook. Good riddance to both of them.
The Tiktok we get that's full of slop isn't allowed in China either. China has a completely different set of content on its TikTok. Trade imbalance is a skill issue and within the country they compete fairly.
China is just as much of a guilty party as the “west” could be. From massive corporate espionage, open stealing of western IP, blocking western companies from entering markets. It is foolish to think they are not at some level an adversary. I would still absolutely buy a BYD car but China plays the same game, maybe even better, and that the west has also played for decades.
Why is it wrong? China is just playing the greedy globalist capitalist game the west has created, but they haven't bombed foreign countries or kidnapped their leaders like the US has, so from that perspective China is not a military threat to us, they're just ruthless competitors. So you are the one who's wrong.
Whataboutism is a weak argument. China is an equal player on the world stage when it comes to propensity to harm. From the many human rights violations over the years, how they orchestrated the takeover of Hong Kong, frequent border disputes that continue to happen and the continuous posturing of naval fleets. I am not saying one is better or worse than the other but don’t confuse yourself, China is absolutely a threat to global peace.
Whataboutism is the magic gotcha card invoked when people have no answers to the absolutely fair question "why is X allowed to do Y but Z is not allowed to do Y".
If there's no hypocritical double standards then you'd have an answer instead of calling whataboutism.
>From the many human rights violations over the years
Their problem, not ours. Just don't buy stuff made in china and write to your politicians to stop sending your manufacturing jobs there out of greed of stonks go up like they've been doing for 30 years, if you want to do anything about it.
>how they orchestrated the takeover of Hong Kong
The British gave it to them. US also took over several overseas territories. Where's the hubbub there?
>frequent border disputes that continue to happen and the continuous posturing of naval fleets
Again, their problem to deal with not ours. I don't want to police and get involved in centuries old conflicts on other side of the planet that have nothing to do with us. I only care what happens in my backyard. Feel free to go join the Indian military and help them fight China if you actually care that much about it.
>China is absolutely a threat to global peace.
Then US is an even bigger threat. And still I don't want to go to war with them.
The hostility is a result of a long reading of history. If you think Chinese leadership has forgotten European colonialism, you are mistaken. If you want to understand how deeply the maximalist mindset runs in Chinese culture, look up what the name of the country - zhongguo - means. I love Chinese culture, and lived there, but make no mistake about how clear eyed their leadership is about competition with western hegemony.
>If you think Chinese leadership has forgotten European colonialism, you are mistaken.
You are mistaken to think I forgot that. The west is the one who is mistaken if they think all other countries and cultures forgot that. If they can, they would gladly enact revenge over Europeans and whip them. Which is why it's best to arm ourselves to the teeth and ensure they'll never be in a position do that. So no, i haven't forgotten, the west has.
>but make no mistake about how clear eyed their leadership is about competition with western hegemony.
Isn't hegemony what US leadership has been doing since WW2, increasingly more vigorously and more intensely today? Except China is doing without bombing other nations and kidnapping their leader. So in this game China is the righteous ones.