The moment any globalization cadre in government, media, academia mentions “trade” they immediately go full Orwellian.

So-called “free” trade is of course never anything but economically (and often militarily) coerced transactions at the great expense of the weaker party. The goal always is for the stronger to subjugate the weaker. (There was never any such thing as “comparative advantage”; the strong country always seeks absolute advantage on as wide a front as possible.) And the stronger party always bolsters its economic sectors with massive corporate welfare, so there too there’s nothing “free” about it.

And then whenever the US accuses anyone else of “unfair trade practices” that automatically means the opponent is resisting the unfair gangster practices of the US.

(Unfortunately, even most critics and opponents of globalization and corporate rule still brainlessly use the enemy’s term “free trade”, without even the sarcastic quotation marks. Part of the rampant lack of terminological discipline.)

The US attacks China for its “non-market” eonomy reliant on state subsidies, yet the entire US high tech sector has achieved its dominance through massive state subsidies through the Defense Dept budget.