This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, May 18th, 2020.

I'm Kila Brown.

Anti-China sentiment is running high in the wake of COVID-19,

but many of the proposed

retaliations wouldn't do much for Americans.

Cato's Doug Bandau and Simon Lester discuss the implications of retaliatory

action on China for foreign policy and the freedom to trade.

Doug, let me start with you.

When you say that if we could make China pay, and it's unclear what that would look like practically,

but what would it mean for the United States

and other countries that wanted to exact some price

on China for its many failures in containing this coronavirus.

There's no easy way to get money back from China.

Almost all of the proposals are means that essentially would be

economic warfare, the ones you hear coming out of the administration and

Republicans in Congress. It's filing lawsuits stripping China of sovereign immunity, it's

wandering around the world trying to seize their assets, it's avoiding

American debt held by China.

All of these things kind of appeal to people who hate China,

but the blowback on the other end would be horrible.

I mean, the best chance, I think, is number one, to work with other countries countries you don't want to do this alone it makes no no sense if only one country is trying to do it and trying to find economic and

international mechanisms to try to hold China reasonably accountable and

...