Kudos to both the Alliance for American Manufacturing's (AAM) Executive Director Scott Paul and the University of California-Irvine's Peter Navarro for sounding the alarm on China's bullying mercantilism yesterday on MSNBC's The Dylan Ratigan Show. 

With Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Beijing for the latest semi-annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), Paul described the golden opportunites that were promised by President Clinton in 2000 when he pressed for more open trade with China.  Where trade with China was projected to produce robust job growth in the U.S., and a more open, democratic society in the People's Republic, the opposite has occurred.

This is “the biggest joke perpetuated on Americans,” said Paul.  There hasn't been "any progress" for the people of either America or China.

Paul said he'd like to ask former President Clinton and his economic team, “What were you thinking?"

The solution, Paul explained, is that the U.S. will only get results with China "when we’re honest about what they’re doing."  To get balanced trade, there have to be "consequences" for China's failure to live up to its trade commitments.

Congrats to Dylan Ratigan for hosting such an important discussion.  Watch the full clip here or in the embedded video, below.

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