China Chooses to Lie, Cheat and Steal Rather than Reform

China could have chosen to abandon its long practices of forced technology transfer, product piracy, arbitrary discrimination against foreign litigants in disputes with Chinese companies, large scale industrial espionage, and many other sins against fair trade. Instead Mr. Xi’s China chose belligerence. And now Chairman Xi’s country will pay. 

A U.S. trade agreement with China would (if enforceable) certify China as a place where foreigners can invest and be protected against espionage, intellectual property theft and unfair legal treatment. 

That prospect of certification is now suspended. That makes investing in China less desirable for many multinationals, not just U.S. ones. That, in turn, limits Chinese domestic wages as well as long-term learning and technology transfer. A U.S. certification of China might even boost Chinese domestic investment, but again that is now off the table.  

Foreign companies are moving out of China, for good reason. Their products and their employees are not safe inside China, and other nations are offering more favorable labor costs and other incentives which cheating China no longer provides. 

And so China loses from being a place that no serious and intelligent company can trust.   

Within a few years, a country such as Vietnam will provide the same products, perhaps at cheaper prices, because Vietnam has lower wages. So the costs to U.S. consumers are temporary, but the lost business in China will be permanent.

GO READ THE WHOLE THING AT AL FIN.

AND THEN THERE'S THIS:

I learned stuff I didn't know in this Gingrich interview.