How can a tariff 'balance' the playing field? Isn't that slightly double speak a la 1984? I think the US has every right to impose the tariffs they want, but let's call it what it is: anti-competetive protectionism.

The Chinese government is accused of subsidizing electric car manufacturing in which case it’s just two protectionist players.

China has the capability to support double the car manufacturing of its current domestic market, and plants have already been mothballed due to the glut https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/business/china-auto-facto...

When we subsidize industry everyone throws a party.

The current US policy is less than four years old. China has been known to do this for decades.

At this point the US is doing it to even the field since getting China to liberalize its economy further seems to be a dead topic.

> US policy is less than four years old

Example of US vehicle manufacturing protectionism since 1964 called the Chicken tax: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax

At the expense of the Americans who are not in the automotive business.

short sightedness. when your fellow citizens lose their jobs to foreign invaders, you will feel it eventually.