This strident excerpt from The Default Power, an essay by Josef Jesse published last month by the Council on Foreign Relations, casually dismisses modern China as “a place where the rest of the world essentially rents workers and workspace at deflated prices.”
If, as the article suggests, China’s “miraculous growth is foreign made,” how could the country withstand a 26% decline in exports and a similar drop in inbound foreign investment to achieve 7% economic growth in the first half of 2009? And who is so pessimistic to believe “that China’s economy will [only] grow by 6 percent in 2009?” The article is right that the U.S. is renting from China – capital, not labor, to keep its banks from defaulting.
I would not question the historical resilience of the United States. But I hope that making a case for buying American doesn’t require belittling the recent success of developing countries by regurgitating outdated myths and misinformation about export-dependence. Our political science students deserve better.
wfrost
kgaines
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