Finally others are recognizing what China has been up to

A sentence in a McClatchy-Tri- bune news story out of Washington the other day read: “Anti-China sentiment has persisted for years in regions such as the Rust Belt and the Carolinas, where manufacturers and garment makers have been shuttered, unable to compete against cheap Chinese products.”

OK, we thought, so what’s new?

Well, this: “Increasingly, however, concern about China’s exchange-rate policy has spread to unexpected places, such as the Peterson Institute for International Economics, an influential pro-trade policy organization.”

The Rust Belt and textile workers have known for years that China has had a sweet deal ever since it got Most Favored Nation trading status. And that China, given an inch, would eagerly take a mile.

We don’t know whether to laugh or to cry; maybe we’ll just applaud that finally others are getting it.

China has worked to keep its currency devalued, so as to give its exports an advantage and any imports it might allow in a disadvantage. How China’s new converts to the miracles of capitalism must have laughed to hear American think tanks describe the undermining of the American economy as “fair trade.”

Goods and jobs disappear

While American-made products ranging from electronics, appliances and small engines virtually disappeared from the shelves of American stores, millions of Americans lost the manufacturing jobs on which our economy was built.

It should have been plain years ago that the level of trade imbalance between the United States and China was unsustainable, but now others are beginning to realize that their jobs, too, might be on the line.

Last week, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner told lawmakers that the Obama administration is considering a tougher stance on China’s policies on trade and currency.

Geithner doesn’t have to look far for guidance on where the administration should be headed.

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, a Niles Democrat who represents the 17th District, is sponsoring a bill supported by 143 House members from both parties that would allow the U.S. to take action against countries that skew trade balances. The bill is in the House Ways and Means Committee and Ryan says its gaining support.

Meanwhile, the free trade purists continue to caution the administration, encouraging it to move slowly, lest China be offended.

Geithner and Obama should listen instead to the one in 10 Americans who are out of work and the tens of millions more who are underemployed.

By keeping its currency artificially low, China has effectively been exporting its potential unemployment to the United States. It’s about time Washington starts worrying more about what the people on Main Street might do and less about what the guys in Beijing could do.