That's because the US, Europe, Japan, etc sent their polluting manufacturing to china for decades. Go read about the US-China detente in the 60s/70s.
> Why can't governments stop all Chinese imports until the get in line, instead of banning plastic straws?
Because "governments" sent manufacturing/pollution to china decades ago so that the pollution is in china and not in the US, Europe, Japan, etc and they get cheap imports.
> That's the real question no one asks.
No. That is the anti-china talking point peddled all over social media by dedicated group of "people/bots/etc".
Sure, I guess china could stop polluting. But then it would mean that the pollution would be in the US, Europe, Japan, etc like in the 1900s.
Did you know that China has been one of the biggest sources of plastics in the ocean? Do you know why? Because most of the world sends/sent their garbage to china to "recycle".
We can blame "china", but it is we who are producing the garbage and it is we who are consuming so much and creating so much pollution in china. Pollution in china is why london, paris, ny, pittsburgh, LA, etc aren't covered in smog and the rivers aren't filled with toxic slime.