Yes, treason does merit a firing squad. But did they have that mindset - to commit treason - when it is LEGAL to ship jobs to China? Now, while I cannot imagine doing that myself, I think that as a matter of process & law, we ought not to try to apply a standard retroactively. So, as Devil’s Advocate: China used to not treat us as an enemy: how were we to know they wouldn’t become an ally like Japan?
Even beyond "The Great Leap Forward"...
China has been systematically putting into place, plans to destroy the United States, in order to gain access to our land and (unspoiled) natural resources.
And they way they treated their own people. I remember reading an article in the New York Slimes about a minor party official who participated in some farming contest, I think it was "best rooster" or "largest chicken" or something like that.
He lost. So he had the grandfather in the family whose chicken beat him, beheaded, and forced the family to sleep in the same bed as the decapititated corpse.
The source was the Chinese family themselves, IIRC.
Add to that the mandatory sterilization and involuntary abortions...
Just. No.