We basically have to operate more like Germany. I have written about this in the past, particularly when I lived there.

The Right in the USA and Reagan were all about "free markets" and would regularly accuse Germany of being mercantilist. As I pointed out then (long ago in the 80s) the US was the only fool that believed in "free markets". The Club for Growth dirtbags and Milton Friedman/Jack Welch worshippers swallowed the purely theoretic economic concept as if it were a reality. And that's what led to de-unionization and undermining the impetus to operate our economy for the benefit of working Americans.

Our problem is China not so much because of China, but because we let ourselves be deluded that everyone would follow our example and give up on our own self-interest in the service of a fake ideology.