Trump pulled the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership in January 2017, and that single executive action handed China a geopolitical gift that Beijing's central planners spent decades trying to manufacture for themselves. The TPP covered twelve nations accounting for roughly 40% of global GDP. It was deeply flawed in its intellectual property provisions and regulatory harmonization schemes (free market thinkers had legitimate criticisms worth hearing). But the core logic was sound: bind Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, and others into a trade architecture where American commerce set the terms. When Washington walked, Beijing stepped in with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, signed November 2020, covering fifteen countries and 30% of world GDP, with China at the center of gravity. You do not get a second chance to make that offer. The protectionist coalition that killed the TPP told you they were defending American workers. The actual result: Chinese firms gained preferential access to Southeast Asian supply chains while American exporters paid higher tariffs into those same markets. Vietnam's manufacturing sector grew 8.36% in 2023 alone. American companies increasingly route production through Vietnamese factories precisely because the rules Beijing now shapes make that the path of least resistance. Free market economists have long understood that trade is not war. Every voluntary exchange creates value on both sides. The mercantilist obsession with trade deficits as national wounds produces exactly this: Washington sacrifices market access and institutional influence to protect industries that restructure anyway, just more slowly and more expensively. China did not seize Asia. Washington handed them the keys.