Replies

A good approach would be two fold. Firstly, get real about who is on the restricted list in terms of export controls. The PRC need to be in the same category as the DPRK, Cuba and Syria. Yes, it would hurt, we'd have to resource things only made right now in the PRC and contract manufacturers and OEMs with plants in the PRC would need to move to places like Thailand and India. But in the long run, we cannot afford to put our continuity of supply (especially military sub tier raw materials) in the hands of a convergent Confucian-Communist anti Western regime. Geopolitics trump free trade in cases like this.

Secondly, we need to enforce with extreme prejudice the existing export control laws versus the existing lists. Now, a few of you may be thinking, but we are talking about imports, not exports. Well, you have to export a spec in order to get those imports, and export control laws govern that. They also govern any time you open a factory overseas, or even an office overseas. If either the factory or office are within your firewall, export controls apply. Same deal for hiring H1Bs or transfering L1As. Export controls apply not only to exported hard goods but also exported documents, software and other forms of intellectual property including even live face to face meetings with nationals of other countries.

I definitely agree with your statement the Geopolitics should trump Free Trade... As long as the labor force is controlled by a government agency it's not really "Free Trade".

I'm not the right person to get into an in-depth discussion on all the factors involved. I'm not educated enough in this area to understand all the details.

What I do know is that there is also something going on where parts made in the U.S. are then shipped to China, assembled in China, and then sold back to the U.S.

As I said I'm not educated enough on this issue to start spouting off as far as what needs to be done. I just see the problems with paychecks getting smaller, benefits being reduced, and jobs being lost due to the fact that materials costs have doubled since 2001.

As I mentioned, my husband _was_ working in the semi-conductor industry and I know his former employer is facing very dire times due to Advanced Energy trying to move all of its manufacturing and production lines to China.