"Weapons Of Jobs Destruction" - NewsHour Segment On Chinese Business Partnerships

PBS' NewsHour had a terrific segment exploring the question, Are Chinese Business Partnerships a Good Deal for U.S. Companies? [1] Watch Peter Navarro describe what he calls "weapons of job destruction."

Interviewed on the segment were Peter Navarro [2], professor of economics at the University of California, Irvine, and author of "Death by China: Confronting the Dragon," and Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

Watch Are Chinese Business Partnerships Good for U.S. Companies? [3] on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour. [4]

Peter Navarro's "weapons of job destruction" include:

• currency manipulation,
• illegal export subsidies,
• the theft of our intellectual property.
• the use of worker abuses that have 16-hour days, seven days a week, and suicide nets at companies like Foxconn, which make our iPad,
• and finally the worst environmental regulations in the world, which are turning that country into a living hell for over a billion people.

(Note: See Richard Eskow's Hell Is Cheaper: China, Apple, And The Economics Of Horror [5]

PETER NAVARRO: Now, let me say that the bigger picture here is that China, basically, over -- since they joined the WTO, we have lost 57,000 factories, we've lost six million manufacturing jobs, and we have lost over 15 million jobs total in those 10 years.

And the reason we have done that is because of our trade deficit with China that is the result, not of cheap labor, but rather of five what I call weapons of job destruction, which include currency manipulation, illegal export subsidies, the theft of our intellectual property, the use of worker abuses that have 16-hour days, seven days a week, and suicide nets at companies like Foxconn, which make our iPad, and finally the worst environmental regulations in the world, which are turning that country into a living hell for over a billion people.

So I think we are in denial here if we do not recognize that China is basically a primary source of our economic woes here. And the best jobs program right now is not more fiscal stimulus. It's trade reform with China, so that we can play on a level playing field, like President Obama has acknowledged in his latest speech.

[6] [7]