‘Best position in the world’ for US corporate interests. The fact that the wealth accrued from that is not distributed equitbly in the US is more of an internal issue rather than one related to trade policy.
Neoliberalism is meant to work to work in favor of American companies. When you mention a laborer in SE Asia making a pittance in exchange for terrible working conditions and benefits, it is American companies that are saving on costs and those savings show up on their balance sheets.
The issue is that the average American sees none of that and at best gets lower prices. The rest goes into the pockets of a few.
This is a feature of unregulated capitalism in the age of globalisation. If a country tries to push back (generally through left leaning movements / revolutions), the US government steps in to protect US corporate interests by staging a coup and installing a puppet.
The ruling class in such countries are almost always hand selected to protect American interests in the region. They’re compensated under the table to sell out their countrymen.
I wouldn’t agree that it was at wall street’s expense. American companies went into China willingly and agreed to those terms, eager for potential cost savings in return. One of the most notorious examples is Zuckerberg going out of his way to learn Mandarin, looking for any advantage to get Meta into China. China has played its cards quite intelligently, utilizing the foundation of unchecked greed in American corporate practice to build itself to its current position while the US government either fell asleep at the wheel or erroneously assumed that China would eventually assume the role of US vassal, like South Korea or Japan, as it became prosperous.
I agree that unchecked capitalism creates circumstances where the strengths of the free market gets subverted by monopolization and regulatory capture.