By Dan Steinbock

In the post-World War II era, the United States was the champion of global trade, overseeing the creation of much of the infrastructure of the multilateral world order. But times are changing.

According to recent surveys, Americans are now most skeptical about the growing trade ties between countries, whereas the Chinese hold the most positive views on global trade.

This dramatic reversal is reflected in the increasingly critical views of US presidential campaigns on global trade in general and trade with China in particular.

Since the normalization of US relations with China in 1979, Washington and Beijing have cultivated cooperative policies. After the 1990s, these policies have been under increasing scrutiny and debate, reflecting the US push toward unilateralism in and accelerating friction in US-Chinese trade relations.

Between 2001 and March, 2008, China's foreign exchange reserves soared from $216 billion to an estimated $1.68 trillion. But China is not the largest holder of the US securities. Last February, this list was led by Japan ($587 billion), followed by China ($487 billion), the United Kingdom ($181 billion) and Brazil ($147 billion).

In 2007, US imports from China amounted to $322 billion, about $10 billion more than from Canada. But trade is a two-way street. The US exports to China have grown rapidly to $65 billion. China is now the third-largest US export market, larger than Japan and ranking behind Canada and Mexico.

As for the US-Chinese Direct Investments, in 2007, China maintained its position as one of the world's top destinations for foreign direct investment (FDI), with overall FDI inflows totaling $82.7 billion. The United States is only the sixth largest investor in China, behind Japan and Singapore. Despite their overall support for free trade, Democratic contenders are critical of globalization, offshoring and free trade agreements (FTAs).