The United States is largely to blame for its growing trade deficit with the mainland, according to official media.
The United States had transferred most of its labour-intensive industrial sectors to developing countries, such as the mainland, since concentrating on information technology, the China Daily Business Weekly said yesterday.
Zhou Shijian, vice-president of the China Chamber of Commerce for Metals, Minerals and Chemical Importers and Exporters, told the newspaper: 'For the US, importing these low-end products is much cheaper than producing them by itself, since it has such an expensive labour force.' Products made by US-funded ventures in the mainland and sold on the domestic market 'have to a certain extent cut the level of US exports, while if these businesses export their products back to the US, they are usually counted as imports from China', Mr Zhou said.
Actual US investment in the mainland had averaged US$3 billion annually for six consecutive years since 1992, the newspaper said.
Washington has said the mainland trade surplus was likely to hit a politically sensitive $60 billion this year.
But Beijing customs figures show the country registered a $17.4 billion trade surplus with the US in the first 10 months of this year, compared with $16.4 billion in the whole of last year.
Analysts forecast the mainland's trade surplus with the US would hit $20 billion this year, the newspaper said.