Source: Orange County Register
by Veronique de Rugy
“When Donald Trump first campaigned in 2015, he capitalized on a potent narrative: that China’s rise gutted American manufacturing, leaving countless blue-collar communities devastated. Known now as the ‘China shock,’ that idea paved the way for a dramatic resurgence in protectionism, culminating in sweeping tariffs including Trump’s controversial ‘Liberation Day’ duties. Yet we continue to learn just how shaky the theory’s foundations are. … One detailed Census Bureau study even found that firms with greater Chinese import exposure increased manufacturing employment, reallocating jobs to more efficient domestic production lines enabled by cheaper imports. Moreover, the steady decline in U.S. manufacturing employment began decades before China’s WTO entry. Between the late 1970s and 2000, factory employment had already decreased substantially, mostly because of technological advances and shifting consumer demand. Notably, there was no sudden acceleration of this decline after China joined the WTO.” (06/05/25)