In stead of crying foul about china trade surplus, US can do the following things to have a balanced trade with China. 1 change the laws which discriminate china firms to invest in US. Basically let china buy US assets and take controlling shares. I think China is very interested to buy Boeing , Intel, applied material. China will fire most workers and take bright engineers and equipment to china and move those companies head offices and main production and research to China, US offices will be sales and marketing divisions. this will cut 3-400 B trade imbalance. 2 sell some hard assets to china like timber , soy bean etc, this helps 3 sell some land to china , so china can use them for food production in US I am sure that will solve problems for both countries. There is no free lunch in this world. you have trade deficit and if your products are not competitive, you have to sell your assets.
Implement Warren Buffet's "Import Certificates" idea. No trade deficit, no additional tariffs, just PAY the exporters for the right to import.
I think a simple solution would be to change from an income tax system to a consumption tax system. Set the consumption tax high enough to replace the income tax. Also make it illegal for any level of government to run a defecit. The tax would probably have to be relatively high, say 20 or 30 percent. People would have a lot of incentive to save and invest to avoid the tax instead of sending all their money out of the country to buy cheap imports.
Man... Open your eyes. The Chindians have 5000 years of history. Both had been very advanced compared to the rest of the world for all but maybe 100 years if that. They out number us damn near 10 - 1 and they have nukes. You don't see very many people starting shit with the Chinese. The Indians being the worlds largest democracy maybe easier to manipulate and corrupt. Seeing the Chinese have ramped up there military forces to over 7 million compared to our 2 million leads me to believe a conflict will soon erupt. War With China by Charles R. Smith On the first day of World War III, the United States lost two-thirds of its military and nearly half its population, yielding superiority to communist China. U.S. orders of the day were of high alert, and there is simply no evading the fact that we were not ready. The Chinese rain of missiles on U.S. installations and homeland cities was a military masterpiece. The People's Liberation Army Second Artillery Corp achieved complete surprise, armed only with a small force of more than 300 tactical and 10 strategic missiles. Defenseless against the attack, U.S. forces in Hawaii, Alaska, South Korea and Japan were quickly overwhelmed by the guided warheads of the Chinese missiles. The bombs plunged out of the inky blackness of space, striking within seconds of each other. The rain of death fell swiftly upon a sleeping America with precise and devastating accuracy. In a span of little more than 30 minutes, China wiped out Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, Chicago, Washington, Boston, New York, Hawaii, Manila, Seoul, Taipei and Tokyo. China sank five U.S. carriers, seven Ohio class submarines, vaporized more than 200 MX and Minuteman missiles and destroyed more than 800 combat aircraft including 15 B-2 strategic bombers. The strikes also killed more than 100 million people without the loss of a single PLA soldier. The Second Artillery succeeded by striking key U.S. bases, warships and air fields with a swift and bold attack. The attack left China with 10 remaining strategic missiles and nearly 300 tactical missiles, holding the devastated U.S. homeland hostage to another strike. Despite the calls to retaliate, sending the scattered remains of U.S. nuclear forces against China would not stop another attack on America, nor would it stop the PLA Generals who ordered the first. There is no question that the U.S. strategic missiles could devastate the Chinese homeland. However, killing hundreds of millions of innocent Chinese citizens would do little to deter the warlords in Beijing from launching the second wave of 10 missiles while remaining hidden inside bomb-proof tunnels. China's sudden and brutal attack forced America to surrender on Beijing's terms. In little more than 48 hours, China won World War III. No U.S. Defense Against Attack Fiction? Then consider this fact: The United States has no defense against a missile attack. The U.S. has NO missile defense and is only testing a limited system that might stop one or two missiles. Those who minimize the Chinese strategic forces frequently state that China has only 20 missiles. These people are fools playing games with the lives of millions of innocent humans. They fail to mention that each Chinese strategic missile is tipped with a multi-megaton H-bomb that can vaporize a city. In the previous scenario, Chinese forces used only half their current strategic and tactical missiles in a single attack, turning 10 of the top U.S. cities and most of free Asia into charred, radioactive wastelands. China apologists also question whether Beijing is willing to wage war against America. However, the Chinese military makes it very clear it wants nuclear combat with the U.S.A. According to an August 1999 policy document published by the People's Liberation Army Office of the Central Military Command, "unlike Iraq and Yugoslavia, China is not only a big country, but also possesses a nuclear arsenal that has long since been incorporated into state warfare system and play a real role in our national defense." "In comparison with the U.S. nuclear arsenal, our disadvantage is mainly numeric, which in real wars the qualitative gap will be reflected only as different requirement of strategic theory," states the PLA military document. "In terms of deterrence, there is not any difference in practical value. So far we have built up the capability for the second and third nuclear strikes and are fairly confident in fighting a nuclear war. The PCC [communist Party Central Committee] has decided to pass though formal channels this message to the top leaders in the U.S." China also has recently tested a new long-range missile capable of reaching America, the DF-31. The DF-31 is capable of delivering a single multi-megaton H-bomb or up to three 90-kiloton nuclear bombs. The most recent DF-31 test took place earlier this year, and some Pentagon analysts expect the PLA Second Artillery will begin active deployment of DF-31 units early next year. 1,000 Nuclear Missiles by 2006 Clearly, China apologists must seriously consider the growing capability of Beijing's nuclear missile forces, including the tremendous buildup of short-range tactical missiles. China continues to deploy short-range "Dong Feng" or "East Wind" missiles. China has a force of nearly 500 DF-15 and DF-11 mobile tactical missiles and at the current rate of production will have more than 1,000 missiles by 2006. The Soviet Union and the U.S. considered the short-range tactical missile to be the most dangerous threat to peace because of its short flight time. Despite the tension between Moscow and Washington, both sides agreed to withdraw and ban the weapons. The Soviet SS-20 Saber and U.S. Pershing missiles were dismantled and destroyed. It is worth noting that each Chinese DF-15 tactical missile has a flight time of less than four minutes, from launch to impact. Today, China dominates the tactical nuclear missile category and frequently demonstrates that fact. In 1996, China dropped dummy DF-15 warheads just off Taiwan's coastline. Illegal Missile Exports to Pakistan Nor are Chinese missiles limited strictly to China. According to documents obtained from the Clinton administration, China sold Pakistan 34 nuclear-tipped DF-11 missiles in 1992. The DF-11 missiles, exported as the M-11, are based at Sargodha air force base, west of Lahore, next to the Pakistani plutonium reactor at Khushab. In August 1994, Ron Brown wrote a briefing document for Bernard Schwartz, CEO of Loral. That document is one of many from the withheld files of Ron Brown obtained by this author using the Freedom of Information Act. The document is a pre-China briefing report prepared for Loral CEO Bernard Schwartz in August 1994 by Commerce and is titled "Background Information". "EXPORT CONTROLS. Last August [1993], the U.S. imposed sanctions on China for an M-11 missile-related transfer to Pakistan. On January 7, 1994 it was decided that although communications satellites licensed by the State Department are covered by the sanctions law, export licenses for communications satellites licensed by the Department of Commerce may be approved. Two such export licenses for communications satellites were recently approved by the Department of Commerce." Rewarding Illegal Exports Then-President Bill Clinton gave China a vast array of missile technology with the stroke of his pen despite the illegal DF-11 exports to Pakistan. The Chinese military obtained encrypted radiation hardened chips from Loral, post-boost vehicle technology from Lockheed, telemetry systems from Motorola and nose cone technology from Hughes. The Chinese generals made huge profits from the advanced rocket and satellite deals with America. One of the main reasons why China continues to violate arms export treaties is because many of the Chinese leaders who signed the treaties also have a vested interest to break them. The Chinese generals that do the official arms negotiating also happen to own the same munitions factories that sell DF-11 missiles to Pakistan. China is no longer a backward communist nation but a modern nuclear-armed fascist state, more closely resembling Francisco Franco's Spain with the bomb. Ownership is legal to a limited few. China has no conflict-of-interest laws. You can be a Chinese general, the rich owner of a major arms company and an arms control minister in the Chinese government all at the same time. In 2001, Chinese DF-11 missile parts were spotted by satellite entering Pakistan. The violation should invoke economic and political sanctions according to MTCR missile treaties signed by Beijing. However, much like Loral's Bernard Schwartz in 1994, U.S. satellite makers are again anxious to restart exports to China by 2002. No Calls for Sanctions So far, there have been no calls from the White House or Congress to invoke sanctions against Beijing for violating the missile export treaties. None of the U.S. European allies, so outraged at American anti-missile tests, have uttered a word about Beijing's nuclear missile exports to Pakistan. One way to slow the illegal sales from Beijing is to use the provisions in the MTCR treaties and invoke sanctions. The first and most useful signal that Washington could issue to Beijing is a firm "no" on the sale of U.S. satellites. Another way to prevent World War III is to for America to build an anti-missile system as quickly as possible. The question of whether it will work may never be answered. However, a weapon never used in combat can be a success if only because it made victory in battle an uncertain verdict for dictators and tyrants.
Why would China initiate World War 3 against the USA when they're already winning an economic war without any blood shed? What would the trillions of dollars of American currency that the Chinese hold be worth if they started a war? The Chinese are well on their way to owning most of the United States, why would they do anything to spoil that?
I agree completely, I think China is largely isolationist and just wants to be left alone to handle it's own problems, particularly if you look at all the instances where politicians have actually gone and tried to violate their sovereignty which of course they have every right to defend as a country. The only time I can see World War 3 start up is with the U.S making a stupid move like openly attacking Iran because Iran has friendly relations with China but I don't think even they are stupid and arrogant enough to do that yet. Particularly with Iran actually changing it's tactics so it can even counter an American force.
I have a better idea. Since "fair trader" means that the USA has an open market, while China relies on yuan manipulation, stealing movies/sofrtware.etc., a few dollar a day labor, requiring technology transfer and other unfair methods to sell in China, try this: -The USA puts a 40% tariff on all Chinese imports into the USA and uses it to pay for healthcare reform -The USA requires China to buy, dollar-for-dollar, as much from the USA, as we buy from them - The USA outlaws Chinese imports. Seem more fair than your approach?