Me too, but I worry if the state has time to repair itself before being overcome by external agents

Yes but I feel more threatened by gangbangers or the " intelligence and other corrupt govt. agencies then I do the Russians or the Chinese. Hells bells types like Pelosi Clinton Obama on and on have been turning US into a people's state .
We have let millions of ilegal aliens stay here and don't know who is a crook or spy or where they came from or who they are..
Dammit they have dreams too , don't you see .....sham on me.

The statement to be ignored. The actions to be responded to, preferably with subtlety and then strength.

No wonder they call US cowards ."Beijing has been aggressively planting spies on US campuses." Said Deepstater FBI Wray.
We all know students on campuses need "safe places for the snowflakes" I would report back with the same conclusion.

Then how do we deal with totalitarian governments that trap us in local minima?

An unyielding position is often untenable. How do we get from here to there.

Exactly. Government produces nothing that people are willing to pay for voluntarily so they have to lie and loot to exist. However I would rather have an avoidable consumption tax than a mandatory (at gunpoint) production tax. But that would not feed the bankster system of credit money creation that currently exists (and requires constantly increasing indebtedness.) If we want it to change we have to cut consumption ourselves and break the bankster system, and provide an alternative system that is acceptable to 50.1% of voters. Difficult, but necessary, if we want to regain freedom without armed revolt.

And the US government steals from half the population to enrich themselves (few reap the benefits) until America is dominated economically. I agree there is not a real free market, but if there was, what I said would be true. In the past colonial powers often effectively did the same things to less advanced cultures, and that wasn't a free market either.
Robots will create even greater imbalances in the labor markets.

of course the tariff is really paid by the importer in USA consumer, the net benefactor is the government that collects the tariff

Perhaps, but China is not freely competing in a free market. They have chained an entire population to slave, while few reap the benefits, until they dominate economically. This is not humbling.

but their labor price can not remain stable, and then it will all come to roost.

Maybe we should just lure away all their women...is that racist, genocide?

That is why tariffs were used by governments to raise money to run government services. They could claim it was being taken from foreign competitors to make it more fair to domestic producers. The free market can be very humbling when you live in a place with a high priced life-style (and high wage rate that supports the life-style) and have to compete with a place with a low cost life-style (and low wage rate.)

Awesome! India as a country is bizarrely dysfunctional. It is amazing they don't export anything but labor and programming.

China is a threat because of their one child policy. Chinese regard males as more valuable, and female infanticide has resulted in an oversupply of young men (roughly four million if I remember correctly) with no hope of a bride and family. Many of those lone young men are in the People's Liberation Army, but the Communist party doesn't want to keep supporting a growing military "jobs program." If they can't put the PLA to use and reduce the excess male population, they could be facing an army of unemployed, unhappy men with military training. They seriously fear a new revolution, and emphasizing how great an enemy China faces in the U.S. is one way to unify the people and tamp down dissent.

A friend of mine who builds and sells electric vehicles has been talking to the Indian government about selling his vehicles there (he makes an enclosed trike that is the perfect replacement for the smelly two cycle "tuk-tuk" now being banned). It is noteworthy that the Indians regard Chinese products as crap, and are willing to pay more for American products because they're far more reliable.

I can buy assembled PC board subassemblies from china (including components), cheaper than I can buy just the components here in the USA. I buy now 75% of parts and subassembles from chinese companies now for our line of LED products. The stuff from china is usually obtainable at 30-40% of the cost of USA made components and subassemblies (prob because the USA mfrs buy their omponents and labor FROM china too. As more people start to buy these things direct from china, the over inllated USA companies with their high overheads will simply lose business until they are GONE.

And the American consumer will buy a lot fewer gadgets regardless of where they are made.
Almost all of the gadgets I have bought in recent years are 2nd hand - car, laptops, computer, computer components, furniture, phones, hi-fi components, music production gear. I did buy some new computer speakers that I could not find used- designed in TN, made in China, I think.
I am looking into creating a line of hi-fi audiophile separates, and they will likely have components made in China. US labor can't compete on price, and Chinese production quality gets better every day.

Yawn.

I can relate a bit about how my small company has survived, which will give a little insight.
In my previous businesses, we made almost everything using USA manufacture and USA labor.
That was when I made medical devices. I sold that company because the FDA was being so nazi-like that they needed to approve ANYTHING that we would make that was new BEFORE we could even sell it. I resented this, and got out of the medical device field.

Now I make off road LED lighting with no regulations. When we started in 2007, we bought all the parts here in the USA, and assembled them in Mexico using cheaper mexican labor, and building rent. We couldnt afford american labor.
Today, we buy 75% of the parts and subassemblies from China in order to afford american rent, and american labor. This has enabled us to keep our prices somewhat in tune with other competitors.

Then the chinese started competing directly from China, cutting our prices in half. We couldnt compete using USA labor and dropped out of that sub market.

So, we reacted by buying more and more of the subassemblies from China, and only doing minor finishing work in the USA. This has enabled us to at least temporarily compete with direct chinese sales efforts. Fortunately for us, their quality is pretty bad )wont always be, however).

The upshot of all this is that price inflation in our product lines has been kept artificially low by the competition from the chinese, and our costs have been kept low by changing from USA components to chinese components and subassemblies.

We have now outsourced about all of the components and subassembies from China now. And I think other manufacturers have done the same. Now, the only way we can keep afloat is going to be through technological innovation, and raising prices.

I see the spectre of price inflation going a bit wild now in 2018 as a result. Buying from china has spared the USA a lot of inflation, even in spite of our governemnt printing money like crazy. The money has been going to china and they have been stockpiling it. As that money flow increase starts to slow, money supply inflation will more quickly result in price inflation.

The reset you describe is inevitable, but the speed it happens is not given. Our standard of living is artificially inflated on the backs of Chinese labor. Eventually, this will come around.

Help Taiwan build submarines.

I am with you, although I think a significant tariff would be equally effective, and less damaging to our economy.

I love that one!

I think china could play other games and make it more difficult for us. Also, I dont see what China is doing that is so bad NOW? We are buying stuff from them because its so cheap compared to american goods, and that has kept inflation low here for a while now.