From MIT Center for International Studies website:
China’s trade surplus with the United States ($202 billion in 2005), rapid overall economic expansion, and growing appetite for energy have made China’s growth a salient issue for average Americans. While the facts of Chinese growth are indisputable, the causes and ramifications of that growth story are anything but. For many Americans, though, the story is straightforward”China is winning the game of globalization because it is playing by a different set of rules from us, and its gains come at our expense. From this standpoint, the only real question is whether we should do anything about it. Do we stand up to China”on trade issues, foreign exchange valuation, intellectual property rights protection, etc.”or let the situation ride? This perspective has a certain gut appeal, but it is based on faulty assumptions about the Chinese economy and our own. Left uncorrected, such assumptions will lead to policies that damage American interests. [Full Text]
Edward S. Steinfeld is an associate professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
