but my guess is that the period of china stealing ip (which is an obvious fact that has happened over decades) is only temporary in the grand scheme of things in that it won't last forever. this is because china has stolen ideas, concepts, and direct designs to catch up but is now in many areas surpassing product design in the u.s. so this idea that u.s. design and development > chinese design and development won't last and is already breaking down. thus, the u.s. is in real danger since china has all the manufacturing ability. so yea, china has stolen and ignored ip laws, but that soon won't even matter. that's at least my prediction.

i have a friend in a u.s. technology company, and they simply cannot beat the chinese version of their product in both price and features despite being the creator of the product category decades ahead of others. the chinese companies copied the design but have now exceeded it, so the u.s. product does very poorly in china.

so what it sounds like to me is that the u.s. sees the writing on the wall, which is all due to their own actions and corporate greed over the past few decades, and so now is making a hail mary in a trade war. it doesn't seem like a good idea when it likely won't be long until china has the upper hand.

so it seems it basically comes down to trump taking his poor understanding of dynamics and abusing the u.s. government's and people's need for a "war".