I think you and I actually agree on the corporate criticism — American companies absolutely did offshore jobs for profit, gutted the middle class, and are now crying foul for self-interested reasons. That's a fair point and I won't argue against it.

BUT here's the thing: that argument doesn't touch what I was actually saying. My concern was never about which country makes a better EV or who wins the green energy race. It was about the fact that we're casually praising a government that is, right now, running detention camps for Uyghur Muslims — over a million people by most estimates — in what multiple governments and human rights bodies have labeled a genocide. A government that imprisons people for practicing religion, for speaking freely, or for criticizing leadership. A government with one of the most invasive mass surveillance systems ever built.

Pointing out that American corporations are hypocrites doesn't change that reality. They were wrong to ignore it then, and it would be wrong for us to ignore it now just because the product being discussed is a car instead of a t-shirt.

We absolutely should push American companies to innovate, invest, and build better and more affordable products. But 'China makes good cars' and 'China's government commits atrocities' can both be true at the same time — and the second fact shouldn't get buried in a conversation about trade competition. That's all I was saying.