The trade war between us and China basically boils down to the theft of Intellectual Property. China is dragging it's feet, waiting to see how our elections go and how Trump's standing has either strengthened or declined before they make a move one way or another. Clearly, they ain't going to give up anything without a fight, and even then I think there's some doubt they'll live up to whatever is agreed upon if we don't hold their feet to the fire. And make no mistake, it's a big deal. See what CNN has to say about it:
The United States has long said that intellectual property theft has cost the US economy billions of dollars in revenue and thousands of jobs.
So just how much damage has it done?
The United States Trade Representative, which led the seven-month investigation into China's intellectual property theft and made recommendations to the Trump administration, found that "Chinese theft of American IP currently costs between $225 billion and $600 billion annually."
Those numbers are in line with a 2017 report from the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property.
Chinese officials have said that protecting foreign companies' intellectual property rights is important to China.
But many of its companies appear to have missed that memo.
Related: Asian stocks plummet on latest trade war fears
"China has sought to acquire US technology by any means, licit or illicit," James Andrew Lewis, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, wrote in a blog post Thursday.
"Espionage and theft were part of this, but so were forced technology transfers or mandatory joint ventures as a condition for doing business in China," he wrote.
One of the most recent high profile examples of theft of US intellectual property happened earlier this year. In January, a Beijing-based wind turbine company was found guilty in the US of stealing trade secrets, using secretly downloaded source code stolen from a Massachusetts company.
Forced technology transfer is also a growing concern for US companies, especially tech firms.
To get an idea of how much forced technology transfer costs the US, some experts say to look at the costs associated with the theft of trade secrets. Total theft of US trade secrets accounts for anywhere from $180 billion to $540 billion per year, according to the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property -- as "the world's principal IP infringer," China accounts for the most of that theft.
How much has the US lost from China's intellectual property theft?
We can't just ask nicely and hope they'll see things our way. I haven't heard of any other ideas to get them to quite stealing and cheating us.