From the comments:
"America's farms are under attack, by the CCP. Once they were allowed into the WTO they started pushing low-quality chicken onto the world markets and displacing markets with slave-labor. Now they are doing the same with beef. Eventually, if China is not kicked out of the WTO and have it's permanent MFN status revoked, all your meat will come from slave-farms in China. They are terraforming Tibet right now, damning all the rivers that feed India and diverting them to the Tibetan plains, where they are exterminating the Huns for their farmland."
I share your disgust with the Chinese government's murderous and authoritarian ways. But I don't think the right response is to become murderous and authoritarian ourselves.
China is not a monolithic entity--it's a country of over a billion people. There are kind, liberty-minded people there as well, and well-run companies that treat their employees well. People in the US should be free to trade with those people without interference from US bureaucrats.
Trade embargoes do nothing but give the leadership class of authoritarian countries an excuse for the terrible conditions in the country. Do you think Kim Jung Un is suffering? Do you think Maduro is suffering ? If trade embargoes worked, why is the Castro regime still in power after 50 years of embargos? If we can't starve out the government of a tiny island nation, what hope is there of doing the same to China?
The more economic ties the US has to China, the more incentive they have to change, since they won't want to lose the sales from boycotts and bad publicity from using slave labor. And the wealthier China gets, the more people's basic livelihood needs are met, the more energy and time they'll have to strive for higher levels on Maslows hierarchy, like economic and political liberty.
But even if you care nothing for the Chinese, if the Chinese government tried to cut off the US from world trade, we'd regard it as an act of war. (And rightly so.) Why does it stop being an act of war, when the USG does it to _its own citizens_?
"America's farms are under attack, by the CCP. Once they were allowed into the WTO they started pushing low-quality chicken onto the world markets and displacing markets with slave-labor. Now they are doing the same with beef. Eventually, if China is not kicked out of the WTO and have it's permanent MFN status revoked, all your meat will come from slave-farms in China. They are terraforming Tibet right now, damning all the rivers that feed India and diverting them to the Tibetan plains, where they are exterminating the Huns for their farmland."
I share your disgust with the Chinese government's murderous and authoritarian ways. But I don't think the right response is to become murderous and authoritarian ourselves.
China is not a monolithic entity--it's a country of over a billion people. There are kind, liberty-minded people there as well, and well-run companies that treat their employees well. People in the US should be free to trade with those people without interference from US bureaucrats.
Trade embargoes do nothing but give the leadership class of authoritarian countries an excuse for the terrible conditions in the country. Do you think Kim Jung Un is suffering? Do you think Maduro is suffering ? If trade embargoes worked, why is the Castro regime still in power after 50 years of embargos? If we can't starve out the government of a tiny island nation, what hope is there of doing the same to China?
The more economic ties the US has to China, the more incentive they have to change, since they won't want to lose the sales from boycotts and bad publicity from using slave labor. And the wealthier China gets, the more people's basic livelihood needs are met, the more energy and time they'll have to strive for higher levels on Maslows hierarchy, like economic and political liberty.
But even if you care nothing for the Chinese, if the Chinese government tried to cut off the US from world trade, we'd regard it as an act of war. (And rightly so.) Why does it stop being an act of war, when the USG does it to _its own citizens_?