he argument has nothing to do with morality but national interest. Its in Chinese national interests they think to control export (they are behaving like a 17th/18th century mercantilist country, or even like medieval England when Edward 3rd banned the export of wool to develop the native cloth industry.

Its clear China has no belief in international co-operation and mutual benefit, so clearly we need to ensure we are able to fight China to protect our national interests and we had better start soon before its too late.

So we should start with trade barriers and start breaking china's growing monopolies in all kinds of manufacture. It would take very little to wreck China's economy which is far more fragile than the West believes. By raising barriers on manufactured goods, selectively to protect key industries, we can re-grow our own wrecked industries and start to rebalance the global trade imbalances. The stabilisation of the British and American economies will make us less vulnerable to global credit shocks and less vulnerable to threats from regimes such as China.

Sadly the europeans are too stupid and cowardly to do anything, and anyway, Germany makes all its money from the present trade imbalances

At the same time we need to develop new technology to replace these precious metals, and we need to better protect our ideas a from the Chinese and others.

If China can't move away form its mercantilist ideas then we need to break it before they break us.