中美贸易观察
时间：2018-12-11 作者：英语课 分类：万花筒2006年
Zhou Xingcui makes buttons for export, at a time when China's trade has become a hot-button issue itself. She can't believe it when told of that some in the United States see China as a threat.
"That must be a rumor 1 ", she says , "We Chinese are not that bad. "
Riding China's manufacturing boom has changed Zhou's life, she left the farming life she had known, and came to the button manufacturing town of Qiaotou. She now earns about $100 a month as much as her husband does back on the farm. Her two sons also found work here in the industry.
Buttons themselves may not be in the firing line, but the clothes that they are sewn on certainly are . Swamped with low cost Chinese textiles , the EU and the US hit back with quotas 2 to protect their home industries . But China's exports keep coming, overall exports have surged 30% a year on average for the past 3 years, that's 6 times faster than overall world exports. Some 60% of the world's buttons are said to be made in Qiaotou, and the kind of Chinese exports are also growing.
" Not far form here and it was known as button town, there're entire towns dedicated 3 to making socks , ties, lighter 4, you name it , but elsewhere Chinese factories are already churning out the bigger-ticket items. "
Like cars, nearly 6 million rolled out Chinese production lines last year, and for the first time China exported more cars than it imported.
Geely is one automaker that s got big plans for the international market. It is aiming to export more than a million cars by 2015. It expects to start selling cars for less than $10, 000 in the United States starting next year. Grand export plans from both Chinese companies and the Chinese government are pushing Washington's buttons .
US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Zoellick has urged China to increase cooperation as a quote stakeholder that shares responsibility on international economic issues .
Last year China's total trade surplus reached $102b , the US and the EU together ran up a combined $184b deficit 5. While half of China's exports are from international companies eager to tap into cheaper labor 6, trade disputes are unlikely to go away as China's economy continues to grow.
What may be bad news for Washington is good news for Zhou .
Sizing up the buttons on my jacket , she tells me , "Chinese people have great potential to develop. "
Tara Duffy , CNN , Qiaotou , China.
- The rumor has been traced back to a bad man.那谣言经追查是个坏人造的。
- The rumor has taken air.谣言流传开了。
- In fulfilling the production quotas, John made rings round all his fellow workers. 约翰完成生产定额大大超过他的同事们。
- Quotas of the means of production are allocated by the higher administrative bodies to the lower ones. 物资指标按隶属关系分配。
- He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
- His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。
- The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
- The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。