Hillary thanks China for stealing American jobs, asks them to please keep doing it

by Howard Richman

During a diplomatic trip to China, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just thanked China for stealing American jobs and asked them to please keep doing it. Here is what she said:

In Beijing, she called on authorities in Beijing to continue buying US Treasuries, saying it would help jumpstart the flagging US economy and stimulate imports of Chinese goods.

"By continuing to support American Treasury instruments the Chinese are recognising our interconnection. We are truly going to rise or fall together," Clinton said at the US embassy here.

Clinton had sought to focus on economic and environmental issues in Beijing, saying Washington's concerns about the human rights situation in China should not be a distraction from those vital matters.

In order to understand just how deluded this statement is, you just need to know:

• Hillary was endorsing Chinese currency manipulations. The Chinese government buys US Treasury bonds so that they can keep their currency low and our currency high. Such purchases are an important component of China's mercantilist strategy of maximizing exports and minimizing imports. They buy US assets instead of US products. Hillary's praise of Chinese US Treasury bond purchases was a clear signal that the Obama administration is in favor of China's continuing currency manipulations.
  
  
• Hillary was selling out US producers. Detroit is in trouble partly because China maintains 25% tariffs on US auto parts, tariffs that were found to be illegal by the WTO. Similarly, China agreed to give up their export subsidies when they joined the WTO, but increased them as part of their stimulus package to fight this recession, leading to a new US complaint with the WTO. Hillary's public silence on these issues was a tacit endorsement of China's illegal trade practices.
  
  
• We don't need China's bond purchases. If China stopped buying US Treasury bonds right now, there would be very little effect upon the United States. American interest rates would go up enough to invite the glut of worldwide savings into the United States in order to earn the higher interest rate. There would be plenty of foreign savings available to make up for any slowing in Chinese government purchases of US Treasuries.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a satire about Secretary Geithner's future constructive dialogue with Chinese leaders. Turns out that Secretary Clinton's real dialogue with the Chinese leaders was even more ridiculous. In that imagined dialogue I had Geithner asking the Chinese leaders to buy more American products so that we could buy more Chinese imports. I had the Chinese leaders reassuring him that they would lend us more money so that we could buy their products. Hillary skipped the imagined Geithner request and jumped right over to the Chinese position.

Ironically, both President Obama and Secretary Clinton campaigned against Chinese currency manipulations when they were running for president. That was when they were seeking the support of the industrial unions. Now they are willing to give away American manufacturing just so that they can get more cheap Chinese loans to finance their massive give-aways.