China

China’s economy has expanded rapidly since the late 1970s, as has its share of global economic output and trade. China is today the world’s largest manufacturing nation, with growing high‐​tech and internet industries, and many nations’ largest trading partner. Its massive population also gives it economic heft beyond its per capita numbers, which are still well below the United States and many other Western nations. On the list of Washington priorities right now, the need to do something about China is at or near the top, and therefore motivates a lot of policy proposals—often seeded by lobbyists or special interest groups—that politicians might otherwise oppose. Cato scholars comment.