The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

China’s WTO membership is effectively a sham, according to this WSJ piece; I largely agree:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/if-this-is-a-trade-war-chinas-winning-1506418206

Success reinforces predatory habits. China will soon have more middle-class consumers than the entire U.S. population, giving Beijing huge market power. Donald Trump’s chief trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, says he gets “an awful lot of complaints” from chief executives forced to share technology with joint venture partners. But those CEOs are reluctant to go public with their gripes for fear of retaliation in their most promising market.

Meanwhile, China is adept at exploiting divisions between U.S. interests on either side of the China trade: steel manufacturers, for example, support tariffs on imports; steel users oppose them.

… Foreign businesses are on notice that they are tolerated in China only for as long as they serve Chinese state goals.