The subheadline on The Wall Street Journal‘s Sunday editorial summarizes one spin on the case.

The best defense would be for the West to work together against Beijing’s bullying.

The editors then summarize the related conclusion of a Center for Strategic and International Studies report:

All of this suggests that the West can work together to deter China by increasing the costs of economic coercion.

No.

Rather than wasting time resisting the Peoples Republic of China’s bullying or “deterring” the PRC from its economic coercion, the better move would be for the West to work together to eliminate the PRC’s ability to economically coerce at all: cancel trade relations with the PRC and move supply chains—from dirt in the ground to product components and finished products—out of the PRC altogether.