>>61084227
For lurkers trying to form their opinion about today's news and about China, this is a good question that comes from a good understanding. But the question has a clear enough answer.
Outsourcing manufacturing to China has meant that over time China has come to make near-100% of all of the West's [insert absolutely vital thing here]. For years, China has had the ability to simply stop the US from having medicine, because they make the medicine. Imagine what would happen if China turned off the insulin, painkillers, and antidepressants. It's true that they would lose a lot of business and be in deep trouble, but at least in the short term, the US, and the sitting president especially, would be in unspeakable trouble. It wouldn't matter if the US president had more and bigger trade restrictions to make than the Chinese: the people would demand that he cave to Chinese, give them absolutely everything they're asking for, before those could take effect. Medicine is more urgent than money.
Seriously, imagine for a moment what the average American would do if they heard that drugs were going away, and then the drugs started disappearing off the shelves. Imagine if the hospitals stopped even pretending to heal them: if they got to the ER or the pharmacy and all they could get was a shrug.
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