China Is 175.6% Dependent on the U.S. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:UY4IjCTPkww...

This is Google's cache of http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2012/01/22/china-is-175-6-dependent-on-the-u-s/. It is a snapshot of the page

as it appeared on Nov 21, 2016 07:42:16 GMT.
The current page could have changed in the meantime. Learn more

Full version Text-only version View source

Tip: To quickly find your search term on this page, press Ctrl+F or -F (Mac) and use the find bar.

China Is 175.6% Dependent on the U.S.

Image via Wikipedia

The Chinese economy increased its dependence on the United States last year according to recently
released trade figures from Beijing and Washington.

Chinas overall trade surplus in 2011 was $155.1 billion, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

And how much of that surplus is related to America? Commerce Department figures show that, through
the first 11 months of last year, Chinas trade surplus against the United States was $272.3 billion. Thats

1 of 6 11/22/2016 7:38 AM
China Is 175.6% Dependent on the U.S. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:UY4IjCTPkww...

up from $252.4 billion for the same period in 2010, a 7.9% increase.

The Commerce Department has not released the December trade number yet, and some are predicting
that Chinas surplus against us will top $300 billion when all the figures are in. Yet lets assume, merely to
be conservative, that Chinas December surplus is zero. If Decembers surplus is zero, then 175.6% of
Chinas overall trade surplus last year related to sales to the United States. Thats up from full-year
figures for the three preceding years: 149.2% for 2010, 115.7% for 2009, and 90.1% for 2008.

Notice a trend? The Chinese economy is becoming even more hooked on selling things to the United
States. Why the big jump last year? Because orders from the 27-nation European Union for Chinese
goods collapsed. And if Europe falls apart this yearincreasingly likelyChina will become even more
reliant on the American consumer.

President Obama, in his State of the Union message on Tuesday, is expected to announce the creation
of a China trade task force that will combine officials from the Treasury, Commerce, and Energy
Departments as well as the U.S. Trade Representatives office.

Is the concept a good one? Ted Alden of the Council on Foreign Relations praised the idea in the
January 12 Nelson Report when he said this should be seen as an opportunity for creative thinking
about trade enforcement.

Perhaps it is, but we dont need to get fancy on this issue. All we need is for President Obama to tell the
Chinese that they need us more than we need them. And all he has to say is 175.6%. The clever
officials in Beijing will not need interpreters to figure out what that means.

Follow me on Twitter @GordonGChang

2 of 6 11/22/2016 7:38 AM