Jobs Here and in China a White House Topic

As President Bush met with the Chinese premier Wen Jiabao this week, he pressed the issue of American jobs lost to China. But in spite of a recent economic boom, China has its own job-related woes. The country's economic restructuring has caused massive layoffs at older state-owned factories. And the Chinese countryside has too many farmers to fit on a diminishing amount of usable land. Because of these problems, as many as 200 million farmers and rural workers may be unemployed or underemployed. And the problem appears to be growing - the International Monetary Fund estimates that China's unemployment could double to ten percent by 2007. While China's large cities have seen rising personal incomes in the past decade, the divide between rich and poor has also become more pronounced. Both Mr. Wen and President Bush may fear that disgruntled workers could eventually form a powerful political opposition. - YaleGlobal