And in this case there is no US product to buy. US semiconductor manufacturing simply cannot compete on the global stage, hence the need for this investment.

the US can't compete with China's artificial suppression of the Yuan price to help export prices, or the high levels of exploitation and lack of rights & regulations to benefit Chinese workers.

Of course, it can. The solution would be to depress the USD. It's just that the US decided it is more profitable to extract value by holding the reserve currency.

the US government isn't in control of the dollar rate - the central bank is private.

Right, but the US government is in control of who gets to run its central bank. Certainly it would take longer to change policy than in a country where the central bank is run directly by the government, but it's more than possible to do.

We both know that this isn't true.

First, the US government gets to run an arbitrary deficit, which is essentially the same as printing money.

Secondly, the Fed's board is appointed by the government and can be recalled by the government.

Thirdly, if the US government wanted they could change all of the rules governing the fed.

It has nothing to do with not being able to. The US just decides it's more profitable to have the reserve currency. You can't have it both ways, and it's senseless to complain about not being able to have a cake after eating it.

who said they wouldn't be able to take absolute control of the fed? My point was only that they aren't currently. They'd have to make some serious changes in order to do so!

They currently have more than enough control over the fed to be able to plan this kind of policy. They simply need to choose the next head of the fed to be one that agrees, as they already do.