The row over China’s domination of the global export market continues to simmer, but as Dan Ikenson tells us, Chinese growth benefits everyone.

The New York Times kicked off last week’s China bashing,warning us of the supposed threat that Chinese exports posed to economic recovery: “In many countries, fiscal stimulus efforts have been weakened by inflows of cheap Chinese imports that have soaked up some of the money added by these government programs.” Foreign Policy continued with the alarmism, threatening apocalyptic meltdown of U.S. and EU trade amidst the rise of the so-called Chinese export juggernaut, by 2040. The policy implications of this doom and gloom are invariably protectionist.

The Economist, by contrast, offers a more balanced perspective, reminding us that the Chinese import market is crucial to the U.S. economy: “China’s imports have been stronger than its exports, rebounding by 27% in the year to November, when its exports were still falling. America’s exports to China (its third-largest export market) rose by 13% in the year to October, at the same time as its exports to Canada and Mexico (the two countries above China) fell by 14%.”

This is the point. China needs imports to feed its export market. Recent estimates suggest only 50 per cent of the value of “made in China” is added in China. The remaining value is added elsewhere in the world- as aptly demonstrated by the famous iPod study showing that the Chinese make very little money on each unit produced. The iPod is just one example where protectionism aimed at curbing Chinese exports would in fact harm U.S. interests more.

Trade, whether with the Chinese, the Kenyans, or Peruvians, or anyone else, benefits everyone. A forced reduction in Chinese exports will necessarily make us all worse off.