Wallowing in misperceptions of China

The US-China Business Council, a trade association representing 240 companies in the United States, issued a report on Wednesday listing the opportunities and challenges in bilateral trade with China. It targets the new 113th US Congress, which began session on Jan 3.

The report came at the right time, since many members of the Congress, especially the 84 freshman House members and 14 new senators, have little knowledge about China. Yet many of them will sit on various House and Senate committees making decisions that impact on US-China relations.

For years, Congress, whose job approval rating is around 15 percent these days, has been the source of antagonistic noise on China-US trade. The obsession by some members to push for Chinese currency revaluation even after the yuan has appreciated more than 30 percent since 2005 has been a distraction to normal bilateral trade. A report in October by two House Intelligence Committee members on the national security threat posed by two Chinese telecom companies, Huawei and ZTE, only served to deny the mutual benefits to be gained from Chinese foreign direct investment in the US.