decisions made years ago: “Let’s allow American corporations to establish huge operations in China so they can get cheap labor in a country long guilty of egregious human rights violations. And while we’re at it, let’s make it as easy as possible for this corrupt government to sell their goods into the US market.”
We are now reaping the result of those poor policy decisions.
We are so dependent on China economically, and they have purchased so much of our debt, that we have very little leverage over them. Thus, threatening economic sanctions and other punitive measures are largely toothless undertakings.
It’s a mess. China is an uncontrolled raging beast.