US concern about China is not going to to go away. The Haier Group may buy Maytag and the Chinese oil company CNOOC China National Offshore Oil Corporation may manage to snatch up Unocal. But the news of such deals bids have lawmakers and the nation as a whole reconsidering China. Observers noting this shift tend to explain it that this by saying ?America is becoming protectionist?.

But what is actually going on is subtler. Many years ago, the US made a collective bet about China. The bet was that what mattered was trade. Trade concessions negotiated by Washington were therefore important. But the bet was also a bet by average citizens, made alone in their living rooms after dinner. Americans specifically chose to overlook the Chinese form of government, the limits China placed on commerce, Chinese arms sales, China?s Taiwan policies ? nearly anything ? in the faith that trade in the end would pull China forward. Trade would make China democratic and entrepreneurial. Trade would set China free.