I hear that a lot. Just how do you propose we go about it? The reality is that Americans won't (and can't afford to) work for Chinese wages. So with American high labor costs figured into the cost of goods, who's going to buy American-made products when the Chinese sell the same thing at half price or less?
Maybe we can export more commodities like natural gas and timber products but unless we're willing to take manufacturing jobs at minimum wage or less I don't see how we can compete. There are American high-tech jobs available but the sad truth is American workers aren't trained to do them. Worse, many American workers are unfit to take existing middle class jobs because they're functionally illiterate, undisciplined, very badly educated and unwilling to take direction.
I hear people on FR demanding a Smoot-Hawley style tariff to fix everything, almost every day. I’ll bet this post generates one or two.