A recent Washington Post article suggested that a “richer China” has a “growing appetite" for U.S products.

Robert Scott, at the Economic Policy Institute, decided to look into this.  What he found runs counter to the Washington Post article's bright picture.

Scott says U.S. exports to China have been "swamped by soaring imports and trade deficits with China, which displaced 2.8 million U.S. jobs between 2001 and 2010 alone."

More tellingly, Scott found that waste and scrap products were the "fastest growing U.S. exports to China, increasing $3.0 billion in 2011 (25.8 percent)."

In fact, Scott says, many U.S. exports to China are used as inputs for making paper and other products for export, not for Chinese domestic consumption.

Read more.