"using your own people as dirt cheap labour"
You seem to imply that this is a bad thing. Their wages may be dirt cheap in comparison to yours, but to them it may very well be adequate or generous even. As long as they're not being mistreated or abused then it's fine. For at least the past decade wages (in the coastal provinces and cities) have been rising at over 10% a year in line with the growth in GDP. Labour laws are updated all the time to provide increased protection for workers, eg overtime work must be paid, there's also a limit to the total amount of overtime worker can do per week, people working outside in hot weather are paid a special allowance, workers are entitled to redundancy payments etc.
"Because we're unwilling to make things like ..."
Nah, we only like to sell them opium.
"Because as Cisco has found out, China are blocking US tech companies from competing as they want to build up their own IT industry."
Because as Huawei has found out, the US are blocking Chinese tech companies from competing as they want to protect their own IT industry.
"Until they try and cash those T-bill IOU's and find that the dollar is worthless?"
The day the US defaults on government debt is the day the US economy will go tits up. It will mean the end of cheap credit for them and the end of the global USD hegemony and with that the end of the leverage and control that they use to bully other countries to toe the US line. So it would be an extremely foolish US government to even contemplate a default.
"more and more understand that there's alternatives to corrupt one party government"
The advantage of a corrupt one party government as opposed to a corrupt two party government is that in the former (as least in the case of China) they can afford to plan and implement long term coherent policies.
"but if you've just been given a kicking by state goons for using Facebook to mock the party"
Anybody using facebook deserves a kicking, period. But seriously, state goons have better things to do than to kick people who mock the party (those days have long gone). If you don't pose a credible threat to the government then you can mock away.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
