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As the US Congress departed from Washington for its long summer recess, more than a few members took time to put statements on the record, or to propose legislation, with regard to the following:
* The value of China's currency, the renminbi (RMB), against the US dollar;
* The rapid growth of Chinese exports to the United States;
* The growth of US investment in China, including manufacturing investment;
* The difficulties facing workers in the US manufacturing sector;
* The allegedly causal relationships among the preceding.
The executive branch felt the heat. Letters from Congress to the president and other messages from the Hill to the executive agencies urged the administration to convince China to float or revalue its currency against the dollar, or else to strike back at China for its alleged manipulation of the currency to cheapen its goods in US markets and suck employment-creating US investment into China. A publicity trip by cabinet members to midwestern plants unleashed a torrent of anxiety over China's economic prowess.
This wave of American resentment toward China is not universal. It is focused, as trade-related concerns have been in the past, on sectors of the US economy most directly affected by foreign competition. It is impelled forward in part by American companies facing diminished business prospects in a slow US economy, rising competition from Chinese rivals, and layoffs of American employees. It draws as well on familiar constituencies and political figures who, a few years ago, vigorously opposed US granting of Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) during the great congressional debate on PNTR. But it also includes the voices of some traditional supporters of expanded trade with China.
Concurrently, American textile trade groups are fiercely making the case that unless the US government acts quickly to protect endangered textile firms and workers, China's overwhelming prowess in textile and apparel manufacturing will doom the entire US industry.
On the non-trade front, ironically, the United States and China are...