It is not just our politicians. It is every company that saw the 1.5 billion people and thought what an opportunity to sell something to this emerging country.
I see it all the time in the lumber trade. Companies in western Canada currently sell much of their low grade lumber(#3 & #4) to China because it nets a higher return FOB mill than does selling it to other places in the world, like the USA. This is a result of the tariff on Canadian lumber of 20% coming into the US.
Up until the Chinese imposed a tariff on US lumber much of the low grade Southern Yellow Pine lumber went to China. The tariff has reduced the return to the sawmill in the southern US. Therefore, more of that lumber is staying in the US or going to other foreign countries in the Caribbean.
So, really it is mostly about plain old capitalism and greed. Who will pay you more money for the product you produce. If it is China, companies sell there. If it is a better return somewhere else then that is where it goes.
FYI, China buys a tremendous amount of low grade lumber to make all those pallets, crates, etc to ship all of their crap back here to Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, etc.
They do not build houses out of lumber like we do. Most of the housing is multifamily built with concrete. They do use a lot of lumber for concrete forming. What little higher grade lumber they buy goes into furniture parts.
We live on timber property in southern Oregon, Douglas Fir timber. We harvested about 35 acres 4 years ago, every tree was sold to Roseburg Forest Products. The bigger trees went to the Riddle mill and the smaller went to the Dillard mill. All the Cedars went to a mill in Roseburg. Everyone of our trees went to local buyers for lumber.
BTW, Roseburg Forest Products the biggest employer in our county has divested all its holdings in CA, 1031 Exchanged them to North and South Carolina. Oregon is next.