Bernstein has on multiple occasions expressed concerns for China’s “unfair trading practices, including currency suppression and the dumping of steel onto world markets,” but has criticized the Trump administration’s objection to voluntary intellectual property transfers. In his Washington Post commentary, Bernstein noted that “the intellectual property that Trump and his allies across the political spectrum want to protect belongs to major corporations like Boeing, Pfizer, and Microsoft.” “Protecting the copyrights and patents of multinationals makes them richer, while again, smoothing their path to producing abroad,” and hence such policy harms American workers. Consistent with this view, Bernstein proposed a tax policy that would stop incentivizing offshoring when talking about the Biden campaign’s economic plans during a September, 2020 interview and called it the “key” to take on China. 

In a 2019 twitter thread, Bernstein wrote: “So, re China, I’d a) end the tariffs, b) punch back hard against currency devaluation, and c) beat them at their own game of investing in new sectors to claim global market share, starting with green tech. [end]” His New York Times article reiterated a similar position: “The way to compete with China on trade is neither sweeping tariffs nor the administration’s futile insistence that China change its fundamental economic model. It’s to enhance our own international competitiveness and provide real help to the people and places left behind by globalization.”