Handling of U.S. trade dispute causes rift in Chinese leadership: sources
It seems to me that these tariffs really do make sense regardless of political orientation. The big difference between Chinese and American labor is that we place a much higher standard on human and worker rights. Chinese workers manufacture e.g. $1000 iPhones earning literally a few dollars a day, living in on-site dormitories, all the while surrounded by suicide nets to try to deter the frequent suicides.<p>That&#x27;s obviously not a great situation. Yet we, as in American companies, vastly incentivize such systems by shipping trillions of dollars worth of production to China. So we pride ourselves on more humane standards, yet send trillions of dollars to the lowest common denominator on labor that&#x27;s a hair&#x27;s breadth above slavery? This never made any sense to me.<p>I think free trade is a great idea when nations are comparably developed with comparable values. But when you have asymmetric value systems, you just end up greatly rewarding the lowest common denominator while hurting the nations that place a greater value on labor rights.<p>Anyhow, glad to see the effect of these tariffs is almost certainly going to end up favoring American interests, and perhaps even the Chinese people as well if I can be allowed a bit of optimism.