Bush's reverse in US-China trade policy

Recent development on US-China relationship is disturbing. If WSJ : Engaging China Is Delicate Dance report is right, Bush's administration is trying to "cross-lanes" and wish to pack various issues in a basket. This may be a good Bush's administration PR show, but it will certainly be counter-productive and dangerous.

Executive branch absolutely know china trade is not the cause of trade deficit.

As 2005 Economic Report of the President (P184-185) reported : "In fact, the data suggest that the increased imports from China are largely coming at the expense of imports from other countries in the Pacific Rim (Chart 8-3). This change is due in large part to China's role as a final assembly platform for exports for Asian manufacturing firms. The total share of imports from the Pacific Rim has fallen from its recent high in the mid-1990s. This helps to emonstrate why bilateral trade deficits have little economic significance and why they are not a useful measure of the benefits of a trading relationship; these bilateral measures can be driven by a reallocation of trade among partners of the sort that is common in a world of hundreds of trading nations." (The Chart 8-3 is a must read graph on US-China trade relationship.)

Indeed, Bush's administration latest reverse in trade policy seem more likely be a reaction to domestic politic than a respond to international economic “problem”.

According to WSJ : Approval of Congress Erodes in Survey , a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll (WSJ/NBC News poll\r\n) shows that disapproval of Congress\'s performance is higher than it has been since 1994, the year voters swept Democrats out of power on Capitol Hill. Most interesting of all, the poll show that by 49%-12%, Americans say Mr. Bush and his administration are placing "too much emphasis" on Iraq and by margins of 65%-1% and 64%-9% say Mr. Bush is placing "too little emphasis" on the "job & economy" and "gas prices", respectively. "Jobs and Economic" is at the top of the "too little emphasis" list.

Unfortunately, globalization is a mega trend that no one can reverse without paying a high price. Hence, it is almost a mission impossible to solve "jobs" problem in low skill sector. However, it is always easy to blame someone else and especially the obvious target -- "Red" China. (NYT Editorial : The Yuan Diversion)

Globalization is a big challenge for everybody in every industry and every country nowaday. As PBS's documentary program "Commanding Heights" (based upon the book of the same name by CERA's Daniel Yerginand Joseph Stanislaw) concluded, "the last time in history that human races face the same degree of free trade and globalization was 18th century. how we cope with the post-cold war globalization is remain a challenge to this generation."

God bless human races.