Chinese Research Fellow Rebuts 5% US Job-Loss Claim Tied to Five-Year Plans
Updated
Updated · Global Times · Jun 14
Chinese Research Fellow Rebuts 5% US Job-Loss Claim Tied to Five-Year Plans
1 articles · Updated · Global Times · Jun 14
Summary
A Chinese trade-policy researcher rejected an Emory professor’s analysis that sectors backed by China’s Five-Year Plans caused US factories to lose about 5% of jobs and 6% of investment from 2001 to 2020.
The rebuttal argues the plans are long-running domestic development blueprints dating to 1953, not tools aimed at weakening foreign industries, and says they helped China meet WTO commitments after 2001.
It instead attributes US manufacturing decline to domestic factors including high costs, fragmented supply chains, labor shortages, weak R&D investment and capital shifting toward higher-return tech and finance sectors.
The piece also says steep US tariffs made manufacturers’ reliance on Chinese components harder to sustain, while China’s role in global supply chains has kept strengthening.
At its broadest, the article urges Washington to drop the narrative that China 'stole' US jobs and pursue deeper industrial-chain cooperation with China and other developing countries.