Made in China

The Alliance for American Manufacturing sent us this chart today, noting that aside from oil imports, the U.S. trade deficit is dominated by imports of Chinese manufactured goods.

Looks like Secretaries Clinton and Geithner have their work cut out at the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) next week.

They’ll have a lot to talk about besides trade. Money will take up a lot of time. The China Daily newspaper says the US and China are like “two sides of one coin.”

It’s nice to hear that kind of friendly talk, of course, but what that really means that both the US and China have to polish up their respective sides of the coin.

On the American side, the Chinese say, we have to do a better job of protecting the value of the dollar. And on the Chinese side … well, here’s how the Daily puts it:

“To put it bluntly, the United States must persuade China to buy more Treasury bonds or at least keep its current holdings,” Zhao Xijun, a professor at Renmin University, said.