Except there is no freedom of investment in China right now. All US corporations are being forced to minority shares and joint ventures with government entities, not to mention Entertainment (movies, games) and Internet companies are outright banned from that market altogether.
>did similar things with tariffs against Japan in the late 1980s
Japan did exactly the same thing China does today. Foreign currency quota and ownership limits "MITI'S SUCCESSES AND FAILURES IN CONTROLLING JAPAN'S TECHNOLOGY IMPORTS" https://www.jstor.org/stable/43294946 And it worked wonderfully for them.
Frontline: Coming From Japan [The Fall Of The US Television Industry] (1992) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aesJTsZqm6c
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1990/09/30/j...
"JAPAN AND THE BIG SQUEEZE September 30, 1990. HOW DID Japan destroy the American television industry? The secret history of that strategy reveals how Japanese manufacturers and the Japanese government first created an anti-competitive cartel ..."
"Japan's raid on the American market dates back to 1956, when the largest Japanese manufacturers formed the Home Electronic Appliance Market Stabilization Council, an illegal production cartel. The intent of the cartel was to monopolize the domestic market for television receivers, radios and other home electric products and to exclude foreign imports. Once their home market was secure, they would launch a drive against the far richer American market."
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-04-23-870131...
"TARIFFS WON`T AFFECT MOST JAPANESE TV SETS Apr 23, 1987 The new tariffs on Japanese color televisions will have little or no effect on the U.S. market, because most sets are exempt."
Western intelligence agencies claimed Russia was going to start a war with Ukraine. Russia also claimed they wouldn't start a war with Ukraine.
I know who I'm going to trust with the current evidence presented.
The first Red Scare. Eugene Debs was imprisoned for opposing WW1.
But the US has only ever been in favour of free trade when it benefits them, they did similar things with tariffs against Japan in the late 1980s, have blown up the Nordstream pipelines, etc.