Time For A Dose Of Protectionism?

"Time For A Dose Of Protectionism? (CBS news, 11/24/2009 by Irwin M. Stelzer)" is an article from CBS news. Basically I agree that not just US but the whole world should take action to against China's unfair protectionism. This strange globalization not just hurt local worker, but also damage environment badly. It is time to stop.

Time For A Dose Of Protectionism? (CBS news, 11/24/2009 by Irwin M. Stelzer)

Odd, that. There is Hu Jintao, the world's leading protectionist, the man who manipulates his nation's currency so as to keep goods and services made in other countries out while Chinese-made goods capture more and more market share, lecturing the American president on the dangers of protectionism. And there is Barack Obama, eyes downcast, supinely playing punching bag to Hu, even though he presides over the country that is China's biggest customer. ......

Not so China, which has shown that it is willing to use its economic hold on us to attempt to dictate our foreign policy. In an effort to curry favor with his creditors President Obama refused to grant an audience to the Dalai Lama when the Tibetan leader visited Washington. In China, Obama failed to insist on some token release of a dissident or two. He agreed to address a handpicked audience, rather than demand access to a wider public. Even his cheerleaders in the media are appalled at the extent of the presidential groveling. .....

China might start dumping dollars, selling off all those Treasury IOUs stored in the basement of the central bank. Possibly--if China is willing to wipe a few hundred billion off the value of the assets it will still hold. But the consequences for the United States, which would be higher interest rates and, initially, slower economic growth, must be weighed against the longer term and much larger consequences of maintaining the status quo.

The longer we allow things to stay as they are, with China using its undervalued currency to keep its goods cheap enough to displace American products on Walmart's shelves, the larger will be the stack of our IOUs China's rulers control. The longer we allow China to permit our companies a foothold in their country only if we turn over our technology and intellectual property as part of the price of access, the more likely it is that we will see high-tech Chinese goods doing to our GEs and others what their low-tech stuff has done to our shoe and apparel manufacturers. ....
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There are some other nice articles talking about this unbalance relationship between US and China.

A marriage made in China (By Harold Meyerson, Wednesday, November 18, 2009)

.... The ugly goings-on within this marriage are plain for all to see. The U.S. trade deficit with China was roughly $60 billion in 1998, the year before we reached the accord granting China permanent normalized trade relations. Over the following decade, it ballooned to $268 billion, and tens of thousands of U.S. factories closed down. The trade deficit is the major reason China is awash in dollars -- about 800 billion of them -- and has become our largest creditor. And it is the major reason why boosting consumption in the United States, in an attempt to reverse the recession, has the peculiar effect of boosting production and employment in China just as much as if not more than happens at home. .....

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Obama bends knee to Chinese might (Wednesday, 18 November 2009, The Independent, UK, Clifford Coonan in Beijing)

On a carefully orchestrated tour, his hosts' economic power has limited US options.

... It has been a difficult trip for Mr Obama. The power balance between the US and China has changed from what it once was. China has taken a lead position in helping to bail out the world economy, and as America's largest foreign creditor, holding $800bn in US government bonds, it is keen to match its financial muscle with political influence. And President Obama has had to swallow the medicine. ...