China is the 4th largest export market for U.S. goods

Washington Post, December 26, 2007 on page A1: "Tide is shifting on US exports. Challenged by a troubled US economy and the steeply falling dollar, a growing number of US manufacturers are making up for slowing domestic sales by expanding them overseas, often with sophisticated products, such as tractors,medical equipment and electrical machinery for foreign appetite apropos of the capital goods. US sales are growing 17% this year with China."
On page A21. "Free trade,argued Adam Smith and David Ricardo, would specialize in what it did best i.e. the Law of Comparative Advantage should be understood. It is clearly known to WTO to promote activities for international trade. Nicholas Lardy of the Peterson Instgitute says that China's trade surpluses have swelled, the current account registers a $400 billion surplus, about 12% of GDP. China's current account surplus is triple Japan's level in the 1980s when Japan-bashing was at its peak. My comment: Why Japan-bashing and China-bashing in the negative sense?! Jeffry Frieden of Harvard believes that protectionism worsened the Great Depression. Everyone wanted to avoid a repetition of that tragedy. Robert Samuelson,the columnist of the Washington Post sees the growing economic interdependence. The right way is to study the cause of such phenomena and act accordingly. That would mean the study of the custom and tradition of Asians for their lifestyles for reference. The teaching of Asian culture is rarely done in American schools and we must promote such significant studies in the 21st century for our own sake. Moreover,we must be aware the fact that United States is a Pacific nation as well and America's day starts at Guam and Hawaii, Alaska and the continental United States. Such proper approach is desiderata for the best interest of USA in the 21st century. Francis Shieh a.k.a. Xie Shihao on December 26, 2007 for reflections as a life-long student of economics.