alt Hacker News> but China is more protectionist than any other major economy, including recent changes in US policy.
Not true. China let Tesla set up shop in the backyard of their domestic EV industry, WITHOUT the mandatory by law 51% Chinese ownership, precisely so Tesla would light a fire under the asses of domestic players, forcing them to compete better with what was at the time, the pinnacle EV brand.
China is no longer beating us with protectionism but with innovation and manufacturing. People better wake up.
Why not both.
Protectionism that works to bolster inovation.
TSMC didn't become the world's supreme chipmaker by a laissez-faire aproach from Taiwan.
Same applies to Samsung. And oh-so-many Japanese tech ventures.
And all of them were a product of American geopolitics and tech collaboration.
Let's not pretend high tech was ever not a result of government-assisted efforts, subsidies, tarrifs, export controls, and geopolitical games.