Reality is that dealing with Chinese companies is essentially the same as dealing with the Chinese government; a single controlling entity. Of course we have a trade deficit. The only way to truly level the playing field is to remove our minimum wage and all other labor laws, remove much of our EPA regulation, and then put Walmart in charge of production. As is pointed out, adding tariffs or taking other protection action will be counter productive and cause retaliation.
US companies would do better to make it more of a moral issue. If we can somehow force (through propaganda and such) China to address some of their human rights issues, the yuan would probably appreciate. I personally do everything I can to avoid buying "made in china". My motivation has nothing to do with keeping American factories open. It is because China is an evil cesspool where humans are equivalent to sheep, and I prefer not pay them for it.
This is just one of thousands and thousands of stories that can be highlighted:
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=11901&utm_source=feedburner&utm_ medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CatholicWorldNews FeatureStories+%28Catholic+World+News+%28on+Cathol icCulture.org%29%29
Government is great at wasting time and money
