"I suspect that China could shut the US economy down by banning the export of only (say) 20 products" - Mungofitch

"Yes. Yes! YES!!! That's why the US needs to wean itself from such a large dependence on China. These was a recent news article that said some of the crucial materials for the latest US fighter jets come from China.

bulgarianmilitary.com - US scramb... and rand.org - The time t...
"All of which makes China's near-total domination of the rare earth market a matter of economic and national security concern."

How insane is it for a country to intensely depend on an adversary(ish) country for some necessary good?" - rayvt

Your making your opponent's point. That is why it is so insane to start a trade war with a country the U.S. is so dependent upon. How are tariffs going to help correct the fact that the U.S. is dependent upon China for some important products?

Everyone knows that the U.S. is dependent upon China for these important goods. Prior, more sane administrations, were trying to wean America off of the China dependency by developing alternative sources. So they were subsidizing chip manufacturing in America. They were subsidizing rare earth element mining in America. They were looking to Australia for rare metals. All of those steps were designed to wean the U.S. off of China, yet those things take time.

Trump jumped the gun and started a war that the U.S. isn't yet ready to fight leaving it at the mercy of an adversary. All because he doesn't understand what trade account balances indicate. Dumb.