U.S. policy assumes that free trade benefits all who engage in it…
Today, that concept is being questioned as never before. China’s rapid rise is feeding a common fear: that developing nations led by China and India may out-compete the world for high-tech jobs and keep the low-skill, labor-intensive manufacturing jobs they won already. China already is the world’s biggest exporter of electronics.
The fear is that China, so foreign and large, might soon gain advantages of labor, capital and even technology that will allow it to dominate the world economy – and the strategic advantages that go along.