> They could copy and paste laws that are used for illegal drugs enforcement

Given how well it worked, I'm not sure it's a great path to follow…

> then force other countries to support that.

Well, that's where it becomes interesting. Where are those countries supposed to get their Android phones from? Samsung cannot double their Android phone production.

And what if China responded by not allowing the China-made iPhones to be shipped abroad?

Geopolitics is a tough topic, and even as powerful as they are, the US can't just control everything directly. And on most actions, they can only pull the trigger once.

Just to be clear - I am not advocating that, just I am thinking out loud what not-right-in-the-head politicians (as they usually are) could do to get that way. The easiest way is to apply the same framework to a different thing and then hope it will come to an equilibrium by itself eventually. For that you would also need a good chunk of propaganda in the tune of drugs are bad, just say no, saying phones from China are bad and then subsidise companies who are manufacturing in the west and heavily tax stuff with Chinese origin and so on. I am talking about about decade worth of slow transformation. Fortunately for China they are so corrupt just like our politicians, that any attempt to do this could be thwarted with money under the table. They managed to do this with drugs because you had no cartels and any organisation selling or manufacturing drugs wouldn't have enough money to influence the government (and ironically they got so rich because of essentially tax free high margin product that they pay for "war on drugs" to continue). Try that with Apple that essentially can do whatever they like.

The only reason China follows the patent and copyright system even somewhat is because of international agreements. There is no international agreement that allows for this.

As a result China will simply ignore the US and do whatever they want.

China actually supports these laws for their own reasons as well. If China made all drugs legal there would be nothing anybody could do to stop them selling or buying drugs.

So you want the US to nationalize Android.

Its copyrighted software, how is this supposed to work? What are the implications for other copyrighted works?

I don't want that, I am only saying how this could be done. For example certain technologies could be permitted only in NATO countries and if you want to market your product that uses it you will have to prove it that it does not originate from China.