For years, the Chinese government turned a blind eye to counterfeited U.S. luxury goods, bootlegged Hollywood films, fake Apple stores, trade secrets pilfered from cutting-edge U.S. tech companies. It forced U.S. firms to hand over their technology if they wanted to operate in China.
Now the Chinese government has decided to borrow one of our best foreign policy ideas, too: banding together with allies to punish a cheating, trade-obstructing bully.
On Friday, the Trump administration is slated to unilaterally impose tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods. Trump has said additional tariffs on hundreds of billions in Chinese goods are in the pipeline, too.