The DeanBeat: Could the U.S. have a trade war with China over games?

Donald Trump’s trade war with China over steel and aluminum seems like a battle from the last century. It begs the question: What would happen if we had a trade war over things that really mattered, like intellectual property? The counterfeiting of physical goods certainly amounts to billions of dollars in theft, but that doesn’t cover digital goods.

Intellectual property theft, piracy, censorship, and unfair trade barriers can make life tough for tech, entertainment, and game companies. If Trump went after this part of the trade relationship, some experts say that as much as $600 billion a year could be at stake. And if Trump and his nationalistic followers examined the U.S.-China trade relationship in games, what would they find? For sure, it would be easy for them to notice that the biggest game conference in the world, ChinaJoy, just took place in Shanghai with hundreds of thousands of attendees.