Sorry, but the ‘China shock’ was actually pretty good for America

The idea that China has stolen millions of American jobs in recent decades, causing a collapse in the manufacturing labour market, has long been a staple anti-Chinese narrative on both sides of US politics.

Even economists and media pundits who grudgingly acknowledge that cheap Chinese goods have made life easier and more affordable for the average American would complain about these alleged mass job losses.

And the blue-collar voters most severely affected by sectoral lay-offs and the decline in regional manufacturing make up a fair segment of Donald Trump’s Maga – “Make America Great Again” – movement.

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Among the most influential research defending the “China shock” claim is a series of papers by David Autor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, David Dorn of the University of Zurich, and Gordon Hanson of the Harvard Kennedy School – especially their 2016 paper “The China Shock: Learning from Labour Market Adjustment to Large Changes in Trade”.

South China Morning Post