We may not stand the Chinese, but you got to give it to them...They took an opportunity and ran with it..on our backs and on their people.
The criticism that we as a country have endured for years that our wealth was off the backs of impoverished countries, will eventually apply to the Chinese. They are expanding their kingdom out of their own necessity to keep their people content under capitalist/totalitarian regime - who can blame them?
We demand low prices, low tariffs, so that we can keep up with our standard of living. We gladly fill Walmarts and Malls full of their product and expect it to all work out.
They are building their wealth as any country should try to do...We can criticize the methods and ethics on how they do it, but they are building wealth...and they do it in a way with a much longer term impact than how we do it. We run our economy based on quarterly forecasts, and election cycles. They run theirs based on 10,20, 100 years down the road.
Again, not defending the Chinese, just saying that they are definitely more focused and results oriented than we are.
Unfortunately, the United States is no longer in a position to pass moral judgments backed with military force on the Chinese government one way or the other. Our bankers and politicians have seen to that.
Now, our only course is to ally ourselves with China as closely as we can - recognizing the truth that while they have abandoned Communism as an economic system they have not yet been able to let go of the fantasy that they can maintain unlimited authoritarian central control. Chinese culture enables the PRC government to get away with this - for now - but our role must be to help them move incrementally in the direction of nations like Singapore and Japan and away from fascism.
Our economic future depends on the careful deflation of China's own huge credit bubble and a gradual return to genuine productivity on both sides of the Pacific. Donald Trump's idiotic remarks the other day cannot be backed up - this we are no longer the USA circa 1947, standing astride the globe like a colossus. Our economies are permanently intertwined.