Michael Strain and I criticized Oren Cass’s recent NR cover story on how to fight Chinese trade practices. He replies to our critique here. As with his original article, there’s a high verbiage to substance ratio, so there’s no need to have another lengthy round.
He is quite right to say that we made some pretty basic points in our comment on his article. We did so because he got the basics wrong. He neither owns up to it nor contests our point. Nor does he make even a millimeter of progress in establishing that the strategy he recommends would succeed in its aims. And as in his original article, he acknowledges no possible downsides to that strategy. How to deal with China and its problematic practices is a subject that deserves careful and thoughtful attention. Perhaps someone else can provide it.