Sinomania!

One of the few bright spots in the overall American economy over the past few years has been the meteoric rise of exports to China. A fast-track process that allows Chinese high-tech importers to be pre-screened and thus avoid lengthy (and usually political) license procedures is under fire from a conservative group called "Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control." These are the same geniuses behind "Iraq Watch" and "Iran Watch" handwringers over non-American weapons of mass destruction so far proved very wrong.

The Wisconsin Project is largely funded by the conservative Smith Richardson Foundation which bankrolls frequent China threatmonger, the American Enterprise Institute, and features neo-con visionaries such as Samuel Huntington on its board of directors.

The group claims the Chinese companies in question are controlled by the Chinese government but the companies are in fact linked by ownership to Boeing and the Chinese state conglomerate AVIC I which rumour says may go public. The assertion betrays an embarrassing ignorance of Chinese corporate and business structure and a simplistic nation-state viewpoint. Will they succeed in derailing an import trade that positively impacts America's balance with China? Under the current government probably not. If a China scare monger liberal Democratic politician such as Barack Obama or John Edwards or right-wing China basher such as Duncan Hunter wins the Presidency anything is possible.

Labels: china, high-tech, neo, neocon, trade, wisconsin project