U.S. Chamber President and CEO Tom Donohue was in Beijing yesterday, from the wires:

China's trade slump worsened in December as exports fell at their fastest rate in a decade amid global economic turmoil, government data showed Tuesday, aggravating a decline that has fueled a wave of layoffs and fears of unrest...The visiting president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce appealed to Beijing to resist pressure to respond to the downturn by trying to block imports. (AP)

But officials have called for further steps that would favour domestic manufacturers over foreign ones, including requiring government agencies to buy China-made cars and measures to boost sectors such as steel and autos, potentially leading to future complaints from trade partners.  "We're going to have a hard time criticising some of the things they're doing to get out of this economic issue when you look at what we're doing (in the United States)," said Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

"On the other hand, if it's used as an opportunity to basically subsidise Chinese industries in competition with the U.S. and others over the long period, that's not going to play well," Donohue told Reuters. Donohue, in Beijing for talks with top officials, told reporters earlier that it would be essential that the United States and China both fight the protectionist leanings that the current economic slowdown were bound to spawn. (Reuters)

"We're bringing a message here to this government: be patient, continue to work very hard to avoid protectionism at home as we are doing in an environment where, as economies get tough and unemployment goes up, people are very inclined to figure out how to close the door," said Thomas Donohue.

"We are going to have a big-time fight against isolationists, protectionists and people who think that they solve their problems by closing their door to the rest of the world," he said. (AP)

He said he had urged China not only to resist implementing restrictive measures of its own, but also not to take the protectionist rhetoric that is likely to come out of Washington too seriously.

"I cautioned the Chinese leadership not to react to every comment by every government official or every story in every newspaper or every pronouncement by a union official or whomever it might be," he said.

"Look not at what people say but what they do, and even when there are things that are proposed, wait and see if they happen." (Reuters)

And from the Chamber's own Scott Eisner, a quick pic from the press conference: