President Obama is about to travel to China and Asia to promote Asian nations as among our most important trading partners in the 21^st century.  Hilary Clinton in the new issue of Foreign Policy makes this very clear.

Hilary Clinton argues “On the economic front, the United States and China need to work together to ensure strong, sustained, and balanced future global growth.” She further states that “U.S. firms want fair opportunities to export to China’s growing markets, which can be important sources of jobs here in the United States … . At the same time, Chinese firms want to be able to buy more high-tech products from the United States, make more investments here, and be accorded the same terms of access that market economies enjoy.”

I agree. U.S. exports to China and investment from  China are key elements to the U.S. economic recovery. The United States needs to be more open to Chinese investment. It’s essential to our economic development.

However, there remains much skepticism, somewhat understandable, throughout the U.S. concerning Chinese investment. Chinese firms need to provide more transparency. But  U.S. officials need to be more open to do away with old prejudices stemming from the Cold War.