Across the world's cities, Chinese electric vehicles, drones, and robots are quietly reordering the terms of modern life — yet in the United States, a 250 percent tariff wall and sweeping security restrictions have kept these technologies at arm's length. What began as a defensive posture against unfair Chinese industrial practices has hardened into a form of self-imposed isolation, one that shields American firms from competitive pressure rather than sharpening them against it. Foreign Affairs now argues that the wiser path is not blanket exclusion but strategic openness — borrowing, with del