China did not “take advantage of us in trade”. Our corporations, in cooperation with the Federal Government, joined forces with the Chinese in pursuit of cheap labor.
You are so right about that...China did not operate in a vacume. They got assistance from our government by way of its subsidizing the multi national corps.
When Ike left office he said something to effect to be careful of the military industrial complex. We now know that they so over estimated Soviet strength to have caused us to spend huge amounts of money and personnel resources fighting a shadow enemy. Today, that same complex has shifted focus from having a strong enemy to spend against to promoting “trade” by way of cheap labor to line their bottom lines. No one is going to change my opinion on this.