I’m just as unhappy as you are, I guess I’m just more jaded about it.  I stopped hoping the US or EU would be sensible about trade a years ago.

Lets hope it doesn’t come to that

“It is a choice of rubbish protectionism or playing with inflation by printing money.”

That is not the choice at all.  The choice is protectionism now, and a higher chance of another global recession, or no protectionism now.

I don’t like China’s trade policy either – but trying to “fight a trade-war” instead of dealing with the real issues in the domestic economy is just straight bad policy.

They do enjoy ignoring that issue – that is true. 

However, I’m very unhappy with the idea of protectionism

It is a choice of rubbish protectionism or playing with inflation by printing money.  Of the two it is difficult to decide which is more dangerous.  At least the protectionism is up front and can be stopped easily.

If you think that having China save excessively creates risks to your own economy (as that sort of subsidy actually sounds pretty welfare enhancing in a direct sense – so we need to think about risks), then deal with it directly – eg by taxing capital flows from that specific country.

 
But those capital flows are the Chinese government buying US Treasuries i.e. propping up the US government’s deficit spending, so they can’t exactly tax it, now can they?  And so the US government engages in unwise protectionism while blithely ignoring the fact they they are responsible for enabling the trade imbalance in the first place.