That’s a cool fantasy but China was barely a player during Reagan. I doubt they saw it that way. In fact I think they were probably quite happy about the USA doing economically well overall given most of their growth depended on production for and exports to the USA at the time. Pressured by the Soviet Union during the 70s, trade agreements with the USA were a god sent.
If we’re talking about decline China was concerned with it’s probably the decline of the Soviet Union. Once that was gone they were fully occupied tightening trade relationships around the world and were likely hoping everyone would keep growing and keep trading. That was until Xi came into power. He sees things very differently, apparently.
That’s a cool fantasy but China was barely a player during Reagan. I doubt they saw it that way. In fact I think they were probably quite happy about the USA doing economically well overall given most of their growth depended on production for and exports to the USA at the time. Pressured by the Soviet Union during the 70s, trade agreements with the USA were a god sent.
If we’re talking about decline China was concerned with it’s probably the decline of the Soviet Union. Once that was gone they were fully occupied tightening trade relationships around the world and were likely hoping everyone would keep growing and keep trading. That was until Xi came into power. He sees things very differently, apparently.