Catherine Rampell Can't Even Imagine that China Would Ignore U.S. Copyrights and Patents

Apparently, the idea that China would ignore US intellectual property claims as a weapon in Trump's trade war is simply unimaginable to Rampell, the Post's lead economic columnist. It doesn't even merit a sentence in a column devoted to the alternatives China might pursue given the limited amount of US imports on which it can impose tariffs. Since Rampell can't imagine how this weapon can work, let me try.

Suppose that China's government announces that, in response to Trump's latest round of...