It's not competition when it's not a level playing field.

European and American manufacturers don't get equal access to the Chinese market. Almost all of them have had to enter into partnerships with local Chinese companies with technology transfer agreements to get access to China.

China has subsidized its domestic car industry with cheap loans, cheap land, and direct subsidies for the last decade. What the tariffs do is balance the Chinese government's support of its local car industry:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/14/business/china-exports-ma...

If anything tariffs should have been applied sooner.