Chart of the day: US-China economic ties deepen across Great Recession
Wednesday, October 17, 2012 at 9:28AM 
;)
Click smaller image for larger version.
Go here for interactive one you can peruse in depth.
BusinessWeek post by way of Craig Nordin.
Some basics:
- Both imports from, and exports to, China grow since 2008.
- Chinese investment creates 8,000 US jobs in 2007 and now 27,000 in 2012. "If investment from China remains on track, Chinese businesses will employ 200,000 to 400,000 Americans by 2020."
- Applications for enterpreneur visas to US: About 500 Chinese in 2008 equals about 40% of total, and almost 3,000 Chinese applications in 2011 = about 80%.
- Chinese students in US up 135% since 2008 (84,000 --> 197,000).
- Chinese holdings of US Treasuries up 158% since 2008.
- Patent applications: 4-5,000 Chinese applications in US in 2008 and 10-11,000 in 2011; and US applications in China 24-25,000 in 2008 and 28-29,000 in 2011.
- Top 10 US exports to China are power generation equipment, oil seeds and fruits, electrical machinery/equipment, vehicles, aircraft and spacecraft, optics and med equipment, plastics, pulp and paperboard, copper, organic chems.
- Top 10 US imports from China are electrical machinery/equipment, power generation equipment, toys-games-sports equipment, furniture, footwear, apparel, plastics, iron and steel, vehicles.
It is dismaying to listen to the crude level of discourse in this presidential election regarding China. Something to remember when we blame domestic Chinese politics on similarly crude behavior/talk from the Beijing.
Yes, the clever wags will point out that we've outsourced more jobs to China than they've created over here. But the interesting point is that China is already creating jobs over here and that that number is growing rapidly. That tells you how quickly that worm has already begun turning. Moreover, while some of those jobs will invariably return as China's wages rise, most will simply continue their long-term global migration to the next great sources of cheap labor - as they should (unless you believe America should, for example, attempt to become the most expensive manufacturer of low-cost, low-tech items in the world).
Reader Comments (1)
Is the 27,000 jobs created a gross figure or a net figure? ie, even if the Chinese are creating jobs here, are they also still taking more away, and at what rate?