When they could ease security safeguards, they did. When they could sell outside the bounds, they did. When our enemies were caught stealing, they got a slap, or nothing. And what they could not strip and sell, they GAVE AWAY.
Clinton lied, in a court of law, about inappropriate behavior in a case where the charges against him stemmed from inappropriate behavior, and the majority of the country DID NOT CARE.
Get someone who cares more about their wallet to even pay attention to the intracacies of national defense? The unwashed masses collectively yawn. China sold us cheap goods, we couldn't anger them, so we "played nice" instead of kicking them in the teeth.
And what did they sell us? Bibs with lead in the lining, toys with dangerous chemicals for our children, animal food with poison that killed our pets, and more.
Oh, yes, and the rope with which to hang us.
I didn't grow up hating China, but I hate their government now. Anyone who doesn't think that their goal is world supremacy hasn't been paying attention, particularly since China's own generals have boasted as such over the years.
For the most part I think the Chinese masses are a very warm and humble people, usually very kind. The government and emerging Capitalist Moguls are another class of people. Of course we must realize they are in their accelerated economic development about where we were when Upton Sinclair and others wrote their books scathing our industrial practices. But their government will not harness, regulate, and restrict their progress as ours did. And what will the rest of the world say? Nothing. That criticism is reserved ONLY for the USA.