Tilting at dragons

摘要

Worried about the loss of manufac-turing jobs? Anxious about America's huge trade deficit? Trying to explain the cause of deflation in Japan? In tough economic times, politicians need someone to blame. And today the rich world's scapegoat of choice is China. When George Bush met China's president, Hu Jintao, at the APEC summit in Bangkok this week, he was under intense pressure from manufacturers and congressmen back home to persuade China to revalue its currency, the yuan, currently pegged at 8.28 to the dollar. Bosses in industries from clothing and toys to furniture and consumer electronics are complaining about "unfair" Chinese competition. They claim that, by keeping the yuan artificially low, China is stealing jobs from America and causing a record trade deficit. Legislation has recently been proposed in Congress to levy big tariffs on imports from China.