Businesses manufacturing for export in the mainland had better prepare themselves. An unlikely alliance of big western corporations, trades unions and environmental campaign groups is likely to open a third front in the United States' and Europe's continuing trade war against the mainland.
So far the complaints of the mainland's trade critics have focused largely on the perceived undervaluation of the yuan and consumers' fears over the poor safety record of its exports.
For months the US Congress has been preparing a barrage of legislation aimed at punishing Beijing for artificially holding down the value of its currency. More recently, attention has focused on a series of safety scares involving everything from seafood and toothpaste to children's toys and pyjamas.
In the near future, critics are likely to open hostilities on a third front: the country's lousy environmental standards.
'Trading partners will begin to lean on China because of the perception that it has a competitive advantage because it is prepared to foul its own nest to produce cheap goods,' warns Lawrence Bacow, president of Tufts University in the US and former professor of environmental studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 'I guarantee you it will happen.'
Quite how much of a short-term competitive benefit the mainland gains by polluting its own environment is uncertain. According to a study conducted last year by the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California-Irvine, poor environmental and health and safety standards account for only around 5 per cent of mainland exports' cost advantage over US goods. But in highly polluting sectors the advantage is very great. The same study noted that environmental compliance costs for US Steel amount to 2.8 per cent of its annual revenue. Baosteel pays just 0.3 per cent. The difference in compliance costs between US and mainland chemicals companies is similar (see chart). The country's pulp and paper, food, textile, tanning and mining companies also enjoy big benefits from their ability to pollute with impunity.