[bkopto]

"a fool’s errand to think you’re going to be able to get China to change the fundamentals of their economic model by poking them in the eye with some tariffs."

The "economic model" of the Chinese is to steal ideas, erect unsurmountable trade barriers, pollute the environment, make cheap garbage, harvest organs, put Americans out of work, and rip off others.

How about this, you vain fudge packer: break off trade with China altogether. That's what I advocate.

[DesertRhino]

I don’t think we should completely break off trade. We should allow Bibles, Norinco rifles, 7.62x39 ammo, and super inexpensive babydoll nighties for women.

[PUGACHEV]

China’s economic model is to keep its huge cohort of job-aged youth employed and content with a middle class consumer life style. Memories of the Cultural Revolution remind the leaders of what can happen if this demographic becomes restless. They accomplish this by any type of currency manipulation, government subsidies, or theft necessary to keep the factories humming and exports flowing outward.

Trump takes the most obvious approach and increases the cost of China selling its goods here, the largest consumer market on earth. In theory, that would lead to less trade, and there being less demand for China’s goods, deflation. But that can’t happen because China cannot afford the unemployment which would follow, nor other Asian nations stepping into the vacuum. China’s only practical response, but the worst one possible, is to further subsidize its exports so that the impact of the tariffs is not felt by the U.S. consumer.