I would say that the conditions the Chinese government sets are structured to exploit a large structural flaw in the American economy, in that the decision makers in most large companies are highly incentivized to achieve short term results even at the expense of long term. So the Chinese government offers to reward those decision makers handsomely in the short run, in exchange for essentially selling the tech lead the US has enjoyed and which underpins much of the value of US enterprises.
From a consumer perspective, K-Mart was failing before everyone started rushing to China. And Walmart's US logistics was way ahead of everyone else, which is what enabled them to have lower prices. Target succeeds due to having products that actually look good, as opposed to Walmart, whose style is distinctly lack-of-style. I remember going to K-Mart, and Walmart easily beat them without needing to go to China.
I'm not sure I see what kind of supply chains Walmart has in China, since it mostly sells other companies' goods. Maybe it produces the house brand (can't remember the name) in China itself, but I wouldn't be surprised if it outsources that.
Lack of a China strategy had very little to do with why K-Mart imploded afaict. Read a bit about Lampert’s strategies if you want to get a sense of the reasons there.
It goes both ways. Why doesn't Mexico have a IP "theft" problem? Because they are only capable of labor outsourcing.
China on the other hand has a complete domestic industry, they can make everything from tiny screws to atom bombs. There are only handful of countries can do this, if I recall correctly only USA and China. These countries' government has a long term goal of a self-sufficient, independent economy in case of doomsday scenario. Rest of the world depend on each other somehow.
Thus China kinda have an strong domestic supply chain. And it would be foolish not to copy because you have the productivity and scale advantage.
I wouldn't count the US among countries that can produce anything. Of course things can change, but right now the US doesn't produce most things that are consumed internally, and it has been like that for more than a decade.
I’m not saying they shouldn’t try, just commenting on how I see their attempt being structured to exploit a weakness in US companies, which the US govt. should probably try to patch via law.
