[joe_mamba]

>Are western companies able to freely compete in China? Last I checked, no, they need local partners at best,

Tesla operates Giga Shanghai fully independently and competes freely.

>And not just American but any outside company.

So did Italy, Germany, Japan and Korea to build up domestic auto industries otherwise Detroit would have steemroled them.

[km3r]

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.

[joe_mamba]

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.