News that makes China sound bad is generally popular among American media. Some of the most popular topics may include “China holds huge amount of American debt,” “Chinese-stolen Americans’ jobs” and “Chinese government manipulates the Chinese currency.”
Media usually tend to describe events in a way that fits their agenda. Some of them just don’t like the fact that China is improving. They see China as a threat, as an enemy. No matter what China does, they would find a way to criticize the country. As a result, the general public tend to believe that China isn’t a good country. They’d have you believe that Chinese people prefer to do business that undermines the American future.
There is nothing wrong with getting information from media, including some biased news sources. However, it’s just not a good idea to trust whatever the media say. You have to think for yourselves.
Recently, an article published in the Wall Street Journal titled as “One Loser in U.S. Presidential Polling: China.” The article discusses how American political parties believe China is the source of many American problems.
If you haven’t noticed, you can pretty much blame China for everything nowadays. For example, the recent American economic slowdown could also be a fault of China. Some people would say that because the Chinese government manipulates its currency RMB (Renminbi, the name of Chinese currency), products made in China would be cheaper compared to those made in the U.S. As a result, the U.S. has more imports from China and fewer exports to China.
In other words, the U.S. is losing money in its trade with China. When there is a deficit, the U.S. government has to borrow, which leads to the great U.S. national debt issue. As you may see from the news during the last several months, trade deficit and national debt have been in the headlines. So, the belief some people hold today is if the U.S. could push the Chinese government to increase the value their currency, then all the problems in America will be solved in minutes.
If you are familiar with history, this kind of blame has been around for a while. Between the end of World War II and the collapse of the USSR, the threats were from the Soviet Union. After the 1990s, the competition comes from Japan. After 2001, when China joined the World Trade Organization, China started to become a reason for many problems. It seems like whenever a country becomes prosperous, the media would prefer to see that place bring threats instead of opportunities. Maybe, it will be better off for both sides if opportunities got highlighted.
If you are familiar with the idea that China has taken Americans’ jobs away, then you should also think about how Chinese students bring jobs to America. According to The Christian Science Monitor, 130,000 Chinese students were studying in the U.S. in 2009. This means they will generate demands for everything, especially in education industries.
These aren’t exact numbers, but they should be reasonable. Let’s assume all those Chinese students are living right around the U.S. poverty line. According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, that is about $10,830 per person per year. With 130,000 of them, this number will turn into $1,407,900,000 per year. Where do they spend the money?
Not surprisingly, the students will put their money into their education first. That will increase demand in higher education. This will generate many job opportunities in American higher education institutes. And many of those new jobs are well paid. As a result, we might have enough evidence to say that while low-payment manufacturing jobs are shipped to China, better-paid jobs in the university are generated by the increasing number of Chinese students.
At U. Nebraska-Lincoln an international student can expect to pay about $36,464 for a year of schooling, according to UNL’s estimated tuition webpage. That’s just tuition and other school expenses!
If you pay attention, you will find Chinese students in restaurants, bookstores and coffee houses. Those are consumptions “imported” from China, but it eventually generates GDP (Gross Domestic Product) right here in the United States. This is a fact that’s not mentioned by many media outlets.
There are many differences between the U.S. and China. And definitely, the unbalanced trade generates conflict, but we shouldn’t always focus on these issues. China is the largest foreign holders of treasury securities, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Every Chinese person has a share in the prosperity of the U.S. To some extent, that shows China’s trust in U.S. economy and U.S. government.
A developing China would be beneficial to America as well. Just look at the education sector when there are more Chinese students studying in America: More well-paid jobs in higher education institutes will be generated to replace jobs losses in the manufacture section.
The development of China could be a threat but also could be an opportunity. It might depend on how you look at it. An increasing supply from China might hurt the low payment manufacturing jobs in the U.S., but an increasing demand from a prosperous China could benefit America as well.