In yet another US trade attack on China, nearly 200 senators in the United States wrote to President Barack Obama recently, claiming Chinese automobile parts enjoy "unfair competitive advantages".

The senators suggested automobile parts be a focus for the US' newly established Interagency Trade Enforcement Center.

The new trade enforcement agency has been formed especially to target emerging countries, and it is in addition to the US amending its Anti-subsidies Law and taking complaints to the World Trade Organization - the latest being against China's health and conservation restrictions on the mining of rare earth materials.

That American consumers have voted with their wallets in favor of Chinese automobile parts, despite their politicians pointing the finger at China as the bogeyman, shows these imports meet their needs.

In fact, the increasingly interdependent Sino-US economic and trade relations have brought plentiful job opportunities to the US. For example, the biggest automobile parts supplier in China, Wanxiang Group, has invested in nearly 30 projects in the US that provide around 5,000 jobs.

Actually, US protectionism is not only a product of its economic woes; it's also political theater in the run up to the presidential election.

But while blaming China might sound good on the stump and play well on American TV, it will not create jobs in the US and will not help pull it from the economic quagmire of its own making.

No matter how powerful the US, it should not seek to control every industry with trade protectionism, because without the rise of developing countries, such as China, it will be impossible for developed countries to realize sustained development.

The US should strengthen the competitiveness of its own companies by leveraging their advantages in innovation and high-tech, rather than resorting to trade protectionism.

With the deepening of economic globalization there is a rebalancing of competition and cooperation.

If US politicians persist in using China as a stepping-stone to the White House it will put a strain on Sino-US cooperation.

(China Daily 03/20/2012 page8)