How to compete with China

MIT President L. Rafael Reif wrote an NYT op-ed two weeks ago about trade with China and the risk of losing American technological supremacy.  Reif does not condone Chinese trade practices that dictate technology transfers and often involve actual theft of intellectual property.  He cautions that China has become a research powerhouse in its own right, especially in fields such as quantum computing, 5G networks, and mobile software.  His main concern:

Unless America responds urgently and deliberately to the scale and intensity of this challenge, we should expect that, in fields from personal communications to business, health and security, China is likely to become the world's most advanced technological nation and the source of the most cutting-edge technological products in not much more than a decade.  

To maintain America's leadership position, Reid recommends the following: (1) a multiyear strategy to increase funding in key areas and to coordinate the efforts of multiple agencies, (2) revive industry-government-university partnerships, (3) invest more in STEM education, and (4) an immigration policy that attracts the best and the brightest.   

Different ways of looking at trade deficits

Tim Taylor's Conversable Economist blog has some updated information about trade balances for the world's largest economies.  Germany ($296b), Japan ($196b) and China ($165b) run the largest surpluses in the world in absolute dollar amounts.  The US ($466B), UK ($107b) and Canada ($49b) run the largest deficits, again in absolute dollar amounts.

It is useful to compare these surpluses and deficits to the size of the relevant economy.  Germany's surplus represents 8.0 percent of German GDP, whereas China's accounts for a mere 1.4 percent of Chinese GDP.  Yet China has been cast as the rogue nation in the eyes of the President and much of the media.

As for the US, its trade deficit represents 2.4 percent of US GDP.   This is quite a bit smaller than the UK (4.1 percent).  Turkey perhaps has the biggest trade deficit challenge of any country at 5.6 percent of GDP.

Regrettably media discussions of trade deficits never consider the size of the deficit in relationship to the size of the country.  Turkey's deficit of $47.4 billion subjects its citizens to destabilization risk far beyond what any US citizen has to worry about.