Good luck persuading the ruling class, who control the state, to accept a drop in productivity in return for improved working conditions.

It's either that or being driven out of business altogether. They'll happily accept - and it already is reality, as can be seen by the plans of the EU. The only ones complaining here are China and you.

one of the common pro-capitalist arguments are that competition benefits consumers - but here’s a case where competition is being impeded by the state to protect the interests of capital owners.

This here is not a case of competition, it is a case of skewed competition through fundamental Chinese state subsidies. This reaction actually re-enables competition again by levelling the playing field.

It wouldn’t. Again, I am not arguing for, or against, any of these protectionist policies. All I’m doing is trying to help people here gain class consciousness

Sorry, but you can't have it both ways. You claim to want the abolition of worker exploitation, but then complain that protectionist policies will raise consumer prices. Why are those Chinese goods so cheap to begin with? Because of the very labour exploitation you say you oppose. You are demanding the perks of globalised capitalism (cheap goods) while claiming to be an anti-capitalist.

Furthermore, you are misidentifying the 'contradiction' here. China isn't engaging in fair free-market competition; they are using massive state subsidies to intentionally bankrupt foreign industries. The EU pushing back isn't a betrayal of capitalist ideals; it's a defence against state-sponsored monopolies.

Retreating to 'I'm just trying to build class consciousness' doesn't work when the economic logic you are using to build it contradicts your own stated goals. You can't claim "the moral high ground" of protecting workers while advocating for a system that relies on dumping state-subsidised, unethically sourced goods into domestic markets.