Don't blame China for our broken systems of corporate governance.[1] It was people on our end, who actually had the leverage in these transactions, who decided it was a good idea to exchange long term competitive advantage for a few years of record profits followed by bankruptcy. (for many of them) All China did was weaponize our greed against us.

[1] It's also worth noting that government(s) played their part in facilitating much of this by not saying 'no' to some of these deals.

If a man gives another a knife, asks to be stabbed, and is stabbed. Do we blame the knife, the asking man, or the opportunist?

It might be more apropos to look at it as a con man thinks he spots a mark, runs his con but gets conned himself. At every step he can see the tables are being turned and there are multiple opportunities to walk away, as it's a long con. However, the instigating con man's greed won't allow for it. He then cries out 'that's not fair... he conned me!' There are no innocent victims in this story.

Not sure this analogy accomplishes what you intend.

In such a case the opportunist (China?) is still committing assault and possibly murder. The victim (USA?) is likely joking, trying to show off, mentally unwell, or already suffering so much it would be mercy. Anyway, it appears you're trying to say the USA should realize it was asking to be exploited because they were too short-sighted or naive.

This is just one anecdote and to be treated as such, but I think it's interesting:

While India still buys Russian oil, it seems they demand huge discounts:

https://hindustannewshub.com/russia-ukraine-news/india-deman...

I actually read it on the Russian language Moscow Times first, which mentions Bloomberg, but I'm linking this English article (which mentions MT as source).

Another article, on the English Moscow Times (4th March): "Russia Running Out of Oil Customers" -- https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/03/04/russia-running-out...

So it looks like even though Russia still finds buyers it's not easy for them regardless.

Similar for technology, again linking to an English version of what originally was a Russian language article on the Moscow Times (.ru version). It looks like even China does not want to break sanctions on technology sales to Russia: https://hindustannewshub.com/russia-ukraine-news/china-has-j...

I'm reading a lot of "The sanctions don't work", citing that street life in Moscow seems normal. In reputable major German news sites such as Der Spiegel oder Die Zeit, for example, or from some Republicans yesterday (the Washington Post reported).

> My understanding is that the US was woefully unprepared for a one-way open market and the disruptions that would bring to their economy.

Sure - we're attached to the idea that the market will self-manage all this stuff, and it's antithetical to the US' culture that a government would directly interfere with it.