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Zhou Xingcui makes buttons for export, at a time when China's trade has become a hot-button issue itself. She can't believe it when told of that some in the United States see China as a threat.
"That must be a rumor ", she says , "We Chinese are not that bad. "
Riding China's manufacturing boom has changed Zhou's life, she left the farming life she had known, and came to the button manufacturing town of Qiaotou. She now earns about $100 a month as much as her husband does back on the farm. Her two sons also found work here in the industry.
Buttons themselves may not be in the firing line, but the clothes that they are sewn on certainly are . Swamped with low cost Chinese textiles , the EU and the US hit back with quotas to protect their home industries . But China's exports keep coming, overall exports have surged 30% a year on average for the past 3 years, that's 6 times faster than overall world exports. Some 60% of the world's buttons are said to be made in Qiaotou, and the kind of Chinese exports are also growing.
" Not far form here and it was known as button town, there're entire towns dedicated to making socks , ties, lighter, you name it , but elsewhere Chinese factories are already churning out the bigger-ticket items. "
Like cars, nearly 6 million rolled out Chinese production lines last year, and for the first time China exported more cars than it imported.
Geely is one automaker that s got big plans for the international market. It is aiming to export more than a million cars by 2015. It expects to start selling cars for less than $10, 000 in the United States starting next year. Grand export plans from both Chinese companies and the Chinese government are pushing Washington's buttons .
US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Zoellick has urged China to increase cooperation as a quote stakeholder that shares responsibility on international economic issues .
Last year China's total trade surplus reached $102b , the US and the EU together ran up a combined $184b deficit. While half of China's exports are from international companies eager to tap into cheaper labor, trade disputes are unlikely to go away as China's economy continues to grow.
What may be bad news for Washington is good news for Zhou .
Sizing up the buttons on my jacket , she tells me , "Chinese people have great potential to develop. "
Tara Duffy , CNN , Qiaotou , China.
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