> Is hostility a bad idea only for America? Sure hope not.

I think protectionism is long-term bad for every country, but it's especially and uniquely bad for the biggest economy in the world who has net benefitted the most from free trade and competition. There's no denying that China is influential – the argument is that they could've been (and still can be) so much more influential by embracing western tech instead of walling themselves off.

America is reliant on purchasing cheap goods from elsewhere and selling expensive technology. If it’s hostile toward the suppliers of cheap goods or the buyers of expensive technology, well, what purpose does it have on the global scale?

I am saying that they could have got much more, particularly considering the spectacular mistakes western countries kept making for the last ~2 decades.