But we also recognized its selfishness because job losses, nose-diving economy, shrinking investment and confidence decline have become the common challenges plaguing the world after Wall Street sub-prime mortgage crisis evolved into credit crises for both individual consumption and corporate manufacturing.
Although the American economy at the epicenter of the financial crisis has been seriously hit, the government's global clout and economic strength remain unrivaled. There are many smaller and less wealthy countries facing much worse situations.
After the US officially announced last December its economy had slipped into recession, a dozen of economies reported contraction for two consecutive quarters -- a widely accepted gauge in economics for recession.
In the Euro Zone, voices for hiring local, buying local, forbidding factory outsourcing and imposing higher imports tariffs were loud after the economy registered contraction for three consecutive quarters in the fourth quarter of last year.
The Financial Ministers of Group-7 vowed on Feb. 14 in their Rome summit to avoid trade protectionism. We have every reason to worry that with the pressure on job expansion rising, many governments might follow the trail of the US to chance with a deteriorating trade environment.
There is no need to go into the details of the jeopardy of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act passed by the American Congress in the 1930s. Many economists concluded that the sweeping trade wars it triggered afterward contributed heavily to the decade-long Great Depression.
As the wheel of history has turned into the 21st century, international trade has taken a much larger percentage in its contribution to the world economy. The destructive power of protectionism is broader geographically and deeper in time.
Burying a "buy local" provision into economic stimulus packages was nothing but a stopgap which would harm both others and oneself in the long term, because protection would hamper industrial innovation and hurt the interests of domestic consumers and importers.
Moreover, the global outsourcing of business for capital and materials also made it increasingly difficult to define "indigenous enterprises" and "homemade products", which would no doubt weaken the implementation of government stimulus plans as remedy should come fast.
We are proud to see that the Chinese government has taken its action with an open mind. Although weakening external demand has closed down its factories and pushed up its employment pressure, China did not embed a "Buy China" provision into its four-trillion-yuan stimulus package. Government subsidies for home appliances to be sold in the rural areas cover all brand names that have won public bids including foreign names such as Panasonic, Nokia and Siemens.
Facing the crisis, no nation can pursue a better life alone. Collaboration, opening up and pushing forward multi-lateral trade system are the only way for the world economy to cast off the shadow of recession. For big economies with global influence, such foresight is particularly crucial.
(Xinhua News Agency February 17, 2009)