Last night’s presidential debate on domestic policy offered a brief preview of the upcoming foreign policy debates. When it comes to popular perception, China arguably embodies the threat to U.S. competitiveness more than any other country. Last night, only Mr. Romney brought up China, and his remarks include the following (transcript available here): My plan […]
Last year was the Year of the Rabbit for the Chinese – promising among other things good luck! However, China which came out of the global financial crisis almost unscathed (or at least better off than most major world economies) hit one too many ‘speed-bumps’ in 2011. Last year’s inflation is threatening a significant slow-down […]
It is a well know fact that China undervalues its currency, by pegging the renminbi (RMB) to the dollar at an artificially low level. This, along with other subsidies and mercantilist trade policies, keeps Chinese exports cheap, and thus more attractive to consumers in the U.S. and Europe. Because China is the manufacturing hub for […]
The story of China’s economic growth is well known and documented over the years. Following substantial renminbi (RMB) devaluation in 1994 and the subsequent opening of the economy to FDI, along with a number of incentives offered by the Chinese government, multinational companies started to relocate production to China. The Chinese export machine went into […]