Columnist Debasish Roy Chowdhury writes about how the economic recession in the United States fuels anti-China sentiment:
An opinion poll by Wall Street Journal and NBC recently showed only 28 percent of Americans believe globalization is a good thing.
That is stunning, given the way the US single-handedly pushed the globalization agenda across the world. But thanks to the recession, a mood of isolationism is setting in. Most Americans are convinced that large corporations and countries such as China – especially China – have conspired to steal their jobs and that is why they are in this mess. The entire discourse of free trade has been dumbed down to the level of a game where more exports equal winning. And China’s huge bilateral trade surplus makes it a clear winner.
Worse, the subtext of the rising protectionist rhetoric is that China is winning because it is cheating. Which is why the last three years have witnessed 45 legislative measures on Capitol Hill aimed at curbing trade with China, with the last few months witnessing a burst of trade remedies and mounting congressional pressure on the US administration to make China “behave”. If the recession gets deeper as the election draws nearer, the demagogy will get shriller and attacks on trade sharper.
Read the full text of the commentary on Chinadaily.com.cn.
