What were the plausible alternatives to MFN status for China in 1980s and WTO membership in late 1990s, and how would they have worked out for all?

[raharris1973]

What were the plausible alternatives to the US granting Most-Favored Nation (MFN) trade status to China in the 1980s, continually renewing it each year into the 90s each year, despite occasional talk about denying around the time of Tiananmen and eventually acceding to WTO membership of China in late 1990s, and how would those alternatives have worked out for all?

Given the Cold War situation of the 70s and 80s, and China's economic reforms internally, let's not change either of those, what else could American and other G7 country economy governments have done regarding trade with China that what they did?

Who might have been most likely to do something different, and what plausible circumstances could have led to a rethink of the consensus western approach over these decades?

 

[raharris1973]

All the bitterness about selling out US manufacturing and jobs to China, and no responses to this?

I'm disappointed.

Did I ruin it by asking for 'plausible alternatives' instead of just running it in ASB to allow blue sky ideas? Because y'all figure corrupt globalist elites were going to do things this way?