I think you totally missed the argument: it's not about copying anything China does, it's about reciprocating restrictions that they place on your country. If China places a tariff on US imported goods, then the US places a tariff on Chinese goods.

This is and has been the case even for non-adversary countries, and is bread-and-butter foreign policy

> it's not about copying anything China does, it's about reciprocating restrictions

Your justification is literally "They're doing it to us, so we should do it to them".

Apply that logic to everything China does. Do you want to behave like them?

Wait a few years and it will be about reciprocating other things China does.

Reciprocating tariffs has been a thing for hundreds of years before the US even existed. The justification isn't "they're doing it, so let's just copy them", it's "they're inflicting economic impact on us by reducing the profit of our exports to them, we'll put pressure on them to stop that by reducing the amount that we import for them".

It's not simple "but he hit me first" logic: it's macroeconomics with an actual strategy in mind.

Reciprocating =/= literal copying.

Ridiculous comparison when we're literally talking about trade with that country. Reciprocal free trade is the principle.