It is mere pretense that China is a “free market” economy; it isn’t. The myriad ways in which supposed “private” companies are actually in majority ownership, or control of either the some unit of the Chinese government, the Chinese communist party, or one or more top officials of either the government or the party are more than westerners can imagine, and cloaked in deceit.
China is a state-capitalist national mercantilist economy and it’s “success” is a success of that model. It is not in U.S. interest that that model be supported within the domestic economic sphere.
It is bad enough already that western companies are now being told they must help the government establish party cadres within the Chinese working for them, and the next phase will be accepting “guidance” from those cadres.
While we never should have opened World Trade Organization membership to China, we nevertheless should not be supporting the operation of China’s state-capitalist economic model within the U.S. domestic economic sphere.
They are better than they used to be. Change like that takes time. I buy clothes and shoes on Amazon, some from small Chinese companies. They communicate quickly and are very accommodating. They are trying.
What you don’t understand is that the situation is dynamic. With the tariff in place a 100% domestic manufacturer can now start making product and compete with the ChiCom made product. That is the beauty of the tariff.