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China massively subsides its automotive OEMS. To the point that the whole thing might as well be considered a public sector endeavour. The only way the US can counter this is with tariffs or subsidising way beyond what they currently are. If US customers stopped buying SUVs OEMs would stop making them.

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Wouldn't that be an argument for Americans (and others) to buy _as many_ Chinese cars as possible? Unless China is imposing export tariffs/taxes/etc. on them, this would basically be draining the subsidized money from their economy - every purchase is a chunk of that subsidized money escaping.

That’s fair but China will get that money back in the future when they’ve removed the local market competition and start cranking up the prices. They want these cars exported so that’s the subsidies working as far as they are concerned.

They’ve done this in other, less consumer facing markets, like steel and magnets.

The US does this as well. They’ve dumped billions into Tesla alone.

Sure, as well they should … and then do it for every other company one or two orders of magnitude more - then it’s a reasonable comparison.

Tesla gets two to three times more in US and California subsidy cash than BYD gets from China. You don't seem to know what you're talking about.

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