A huge task indeed but perhaps less than people think.
Chinese imports are heavily overrepresented in certain sectors (Tech for instance) but the US imports far less than most other countries. It's one of the peculiarities of the global economy.
Tech is really important. But there is also all the little things that you just interact with on daily life. Things like cutlery, soap dispensers, and so much more. Sure the US could make all this stuff but the country deeply relies on the cost imbalance to maintain the standard of living they have had for decades. Thats most people's entire lives.
I am reminded of this Purism phone that you can buy as a US made or China made version.
https://shop.puri.sm/shop/librem-5/
China: 799$ (now 1200$ due to rising supply chain costs)
USA: 2000$
I guess we are lucky in that most of our food and infrastructure related items seems to be local.
That specific example is not as revealing as it might seem, because in addition to a difference in supply costs, there's a difference in how much a hypothetical person who doesn't care about money but cares about it being made in the US will pay on top of supply cost differences.
Yeah I guess you are right, its just that there is not many examples I can provide because they just don't exist at all. Could Apple with their supply chain experience and clout get that 2000$ price down? Yeah probably. But it helps to illustrate my main point: The West has essentially been cheating by exploiting the purchasing power differential for decades and eventually it may finally collapse on them.
In an idealized situation, every company in the world will all move to a country to make an extra $0.01/unit, if they can all make it and make it reliably.
Almost all of the lumber purchased in America is grown in China, and Chinese concrete and steel are increasingly more common, despite political half-measures intended to change that.
This is hilariously completely the opposite of true. China is a net importer of American lumber, almost no Chinese lumber is exported, especially to the USA.
Almost no concrete is ever shipped more than 150 miles or so, concrete is almost always extremely locally produced.
Only steel has any appreciable trade volume with China.
I'm just curious if this is true if you back china into a corner. I'd imagine they'd take over taiwan and south korea? Is our tech sector really immune from this kind of major conflict?
Hypothetical military campaigns against Taiwan or South Korea would be much more difficult than what's going on in Ukraine right now. Russia can drive tanks into Ukraine from three sides. Taiwan and Korea would require naval battles in oceans full of submarines.
Large-scale amphibious assaults were incredibly precarious in the era before AWACS and spy satellites. Now they're probably impossible against a modern adversary.
Also - as someone else mentioned - China doesn't want to be a pariah state.
Agreed. In particular, they rely on international trade to keep the economic prospects of their young men rosy enough that they won't participate in huge riots that bring down the government, which is the historical fate of most governments of China.
> Large-scale amphibious assaults were incredibly precarious in the era before AWACS and spy satellites. Now they're probably impossible against a modern adversary.
This is quite a bit naive. Do you not think ships are capable of planning their movements around satellites? Do you know how fast a ship can leave a US port and dock up in an Asian port (ships have an unclassified, and a classified speed)? Are there no other methods of camouflage that can be employed to hide from a satellite when it is over you?
You don’t think it’s possible because how it’s done has layers upon layers of classification walls.
Chinese imports are heavily overrepresented in certain sectors (Tech for instance) but the US imports far less than most other countries. It's one of the peculiarities of the global economy.