PeteFree.comChallenging China’s Back-Door Protectionism May Be Necessary as the Lesser of Evils
© 2010 Peter Free
27 September 2010
China’s games with its undervalued currency need to end ─ the U.S. government needs to start acting like Americans and like leadership
Two weeks ago, I wrote about China’s undervalued currency and its negative effect on American employment.
Today, business and economics columnist Robert Samuelson agrees that it is time to confront the Chinese government, even if the resulting American protectionism starts of trade war:
As the old order's main architect and guardian, the United States faces a dreadful choice: resist Chinese ambitions and risk a trade war in which everyone loses; or do nothing and let China remake the trading system. The first would be dangerous; the second, potentially disastrous.
© 2010 Robert J. Samuelson, The makings of a trade war with China, Washington Post A15 (27 September 2010)
Samuelson’s column is worth reading because he adds historical detail that informs our similar opinions.
The problem with China’s emergence as a an economic superpower is its historical unwillingness to play according to international rules
The economic problem of an undervalued Chinese currency is compounded by the blind eye China’s government turns toward copyright and patent infringement.
In sum, China steals jobs, innovation, and creativity from other nations.
U.S. leadership needs to act effectively, for a change
Sitting on our hands while China steals other people’s work and ideas is not in our, or the world’s, interest.
It is time for the United States to begin acting again like the world leader that it once was, instead of as a plutocratic manifestation of multi-national corporations that have no home and no workers to protect.