How China Destroys Business on Your Street
The Trade War on Main Street No One Talks About
Many years ago, I invented a product for the motorcycle industry. Young, eager, and full of ambition, I pursued my idea relentlessly-drafting and securing a U.S. patent, and establishing small-scale, localized manufacturing. After testing several prototypes, I developed the best and final design. I then successfully set up distribution across most of the United States.
Inevitably, the question of scaling arose. At that time, scaling meant manufacturing in China. This was my first experience navigating Chinese manufacturing, which involved meeting other business owners and engaging directly with manufacturers. Studying China’s manufacturing landscape quickly became an in-depth exploration of the dynamics of production in the Far East.
Manufacturing in China always felt uncomfortable to me because I staunchly oppose all forms of collectivism-whether communism or Islamist theocratic extremism. This stance is clear to anyone who follows my X account or Substack posts. My involvement in the trucker convoy, a movement rooted in individual freedom and choice, further reflects these beliefs, which stand in direct opposition to the collectivist principles of totalitarian regimes like the Chinese Communist Party.
Nonetheless, after exploring every possible alternative, it became clear much to my surprise that there was no other option for scalable manufacturing that matched China’s cost-effectiveness, capacity, and range of manufacturing infrastructure. This is a reality that even Tim Cook of Apple has recently addressed publicly.
When I consulted with businesspeople-including friends of friends who had experience bringing manufacturing to China I was surprised to learn that, despite many finding success, concerns about intellectual property were widespread. This issue was recently highlighted by Kevin O'Leary in his U.S. Senate testimony, where he referred to it as "IP." Intellectual property theft is the wild card that everyone doing business overseas fears, and there is only one word to describe it: theft
To grasp the scale of theft perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party and its leverage over global manufacturing, one need only look at the overwhelming number of counterfeit iPhones, fake consumer goods, designer handbags, and virtually any product with a valued brand name available in the United States. Everything is copied. The warning I received was clear: once you start manufacturing in China, your designs are at risk of being stolen.
One person told me directly, “If you start manufacturing in China, be prepared and understand that they will immediately copy your design and begin selling it worldwide for half the price, regardless of your patent.” I had already secured a utility patent issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. However, as my friend said, “They do not care.”
This was the first time I heard such a warning, so I asked other contacts, all of whom echoed the same concern. At first, I wondered if this was simply the cost of doing business. However, as I spoke with more people, it became clear that this was the central dilemma for Western companies in the era of China’s manufacturing dominance.
You have little choice but to manufacture in China because, in both business and politics, economics always prevail-you must remain cost-effective to survive. Yet, doing so means your designs will almost certainly be copied, forcing you to compete against your own patented products and putting your entire venture at risk.
Ultimately, I had to abandon this project for personal reasons related to a loved one’s health, but the lessons from this experience have always stayed with me.
Several years later, after a couple of corporate jobs, I ended up having a completely different business in Toronto in the creative art graphics and printing industry, as I’ve mentioned in a few interviews. Around 2012, coinciding with the rise of postmodern extremism, the market for graphic arts and printing supplies shifted dramatically. Suddenly, new local vendors for consumables and equipment supplies appeared, offering prices so low that our production costs dropped by 50% if we switched suppliers.
These new “local” vendors forced everyone in the industry including my competitors to switch in order to stay competitive, or risk losing clients. The drastic price reductions even drove out some long-established businesses that could no longer compete. Many Canadian companies with decades of service and loyal client bases were suddenly unable to survive in their own local market. The speed of change was staggering.
China Enters the Local Market
I began working with several vendors and eventually settled on two that offered the best reliability, pricing, and inventory. I have a quirk: I prefer meeting people face to face rather than conducting all business by email or phone. For me, business is about relationships. After choosing these two vendors, I visited their offices for pickups and was surprised-not because the owners were Chinese (my significant other at the time was also Chinese), but perhaps because I was more familiar with Chinese culture than the average guǐlǎo 鬼佬. Anyone Chinese reading this probably just laughed.
Over several months, I got to know the owners well. They seemed like good people and frequently traveled to China for business, which struck me as unusual for such a small operation. One day, I noticed the owner seemed frustrated-business was slow, and they hadn’t achieved the growth they expected, despite a busy order book.
On another visit, when the owner was away, I picked up an order and chatted with an assistant who knew me as the friendly Canadian guǐlǎo 鬼佬. I asked if everything was okay, mentioning the stress I’d noticed previously. She explained, somewhat indirectly, that although business was slow, they had connections with people tied to the government. Whenever they faced financial trouble, they received support. She quickly realized she had said too much, and I thanked her and left.
Later, I met with a business consultant acquaintance who had previously worked in China. I shared my experience with the Chinese vendor and what the assistant had revealed. He wasn’t surprised, though most in the West would be. He said, “Of course. Why do you think these vendors are here? To dominate the market and make it impossible for Western companies to compete. They’re hollowing out our economy from within. Who do you think can get a visa out of China without strict CCP control? Who do you think they work for?”
He explained that no one in China truly works for themselves. “People set up businesses with CCP connections, get investor visas, and undercut everyone in the local market. When they run a deficit, the Chinese Communist Party covers it if they maintain a good relationship and sometimes asks for favours in return. That’s why she travels to China so often: to maintain those relationships, because ultimately, everyone works for the CCP.” He concluded, “Welcome to totalitarianism. It’s the worst of communism and corporate fascism combined, holding its people hostage and undermining foreign economies.”
It was frustrating to realize I’d been duped, and that the CCP’s economic reach extended so far. If they can pull this off in Western economies, the developing world doesn’t stand a chance. The Trump administration seems to be the first to truly grasp this strategy of capturing supply chains and crushing domestic competition. Much to the shock of legacy media’s “idiocracy,” this protectionism is actually a breath of fresh air-Main Street is cheering Trump’s tough stance on China and Kevin O’Leary’s Senate testimony. Mr. Wonderful gets it: this isn’t just about a trade deficit; it’s about theft-blatant, and unapologetic theft on a scale that dwarfs most national economies. That’s why the Trump administration is so uniquely aggressive toward China.
The Scope of China’s Theft
China’s theft is so vast it’s become a running joke among car enthusiasts. Their auto industry is practically a meme-full of knockoffs and shameless copies of European, Japanese, and American cars.
Why buy a Range Rover Evoque when you can get a Landwind X7? The Mini Cooper is cute, but the Lifan 320/330 comes with promotions only a communist could love. Remember BMW’s first SUV, the X5? You probably missed its Chinese cousin, the Shuanghuan SCEO. The entire industry, bankrolled by the CCP just like Chinese-backed vendors in the West, is now threatening global automakers. What started as fake Louis Vuitton bags stitched together behind a curtain on Canal Street has grown into a leviathan threatening to destroy the Western auto sector, an industry built over 75 years. The irony is that the current threat to western automakers, low cost Chinese cars, is coming from companies that only exist because they copied and stole the intellectual property of western carmakers for decades. It’s not just cars; it’s everything down to the products at your local electronics depot or available on Amazon.
What we’re seeing now from the Trump administration is a long-overdue pushback, a reset that every Western administration has ignored for decades, and not just in the US or Canada. I first heard about this phenomenon in Mexico in the early 2000s, where friends with family in manufacturing saw the same playbook: the CCP brought in small businesses to places like Guadalajara and León, undercut locals by 50%, wiped out established Mexican companies, and no one did anything to stop it. Sound familiar?
The Human Side
One complexity often missed in political debates is the situation of Chinese small business owners who move West to build distribution businesses. It’s easy to accuse them of exploitative practices, but do they really have a choice? We complain about government overreach, but rarely consider the political pressure and even threats to personal safety they face if they do not comply with the CCP’s business strategies of blatant theft. How quickly can an entrepreneur in China have their life destroyed by the regime if they don’t play ball and launder kickbacks to their CCP handlers? Just ask Jack Ma about his three-year, some say involuntary, “vacation” after criticizing regulators in China.
Looking Ahead
No yet knows how the Trump administration’s tariff pressure on the CCP will play out, but word is Shenzhen is a ghost town and Xi Jinping is walking on glass, with rumours swirling about a potential military coup backed by billionaire industrialists. Huawei is not the acceptation it’s the rule. However, did anyone notice China quietly revoking tariffs on U.S. aircraft parts and pharmaceuticals? That’s not exactly a show of strength.
Real change will take patience from Americans and Canadians alike, even those who find Trump’s negotiating style grating. The reality is: China is the world’s biggest economic problem right now, and it needs to be confronted. It is interesting how all the saber-rattling over Taiwan and the South China Sea has gone silent now that the CCP is in full damage control mode. Maybe Trump already scored a win and nobody noticed.
Whether the CCP can survive this sustained pressure is anyone’s guess, most people in the West genuinely respect Chinese culture and its rich history. Hopefully, this pressure will eventually lead to greater freedoms for the people of China in the years ahead.
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Very well written and valuable message!
Unfortunately for us guys like "Mr wonderful helped China succeed because of his greed and multiply oleary by thousands. China has moved past reverse engineering western stuff. Seen any high speed rail in North America lately? Germany couldn't make mag lev trains work, China does. They just refueled a Thorium molten salt reactor and no one has done that before. BYD builds better cheaper electric cars than anyone. China has built and locked in the supply chains for almost everything. European and US colonialists have been living off the global south for centuries and that's coming to an end and they won't be able to extract wealth through financial and compradors for much longer. They learned from us "the capitalists are so greedy they'll sell us the rope we hang them with!" As to government subsidies, DU, like Canada doesn't do it? China subsidizes local proven winners. Canada subsidizes foreign multi nationals. China has and is lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty while the working classes in the western countries have seen living standards dropping for 40 years while wealth is transferred upwards to parasites like O'Leary. As Cromwell said "In the bowels of Christ, I beseech thee, consider you may be wrong"! We Canada lost the chance to have a Free trade agreement with China when the US had us kidnap Ms Meng.