This political season, trade with China is an easy whipping boy. I’m glad the Wall Street Journal editorial countered this rhetoric by pointing to a report from the U.S.-China Business Council documenting the increases in American exports to China over the last decade. The editorial page notes that presidential battle ground states in particular have seen tremendous export growth to China since 2000:

• Pennsylvania: 1177%.
• Ohio: 838%.
• Michigan: 1169%.
• North Carolina: 651%.

Exports to China and the rest of the world directly support thousands of jobs in these states, as we see from 2010 data on TradeSupportsJobs.com:

• Pennsylvania: 93,371.
• Ohio: 120,963.
• Michigan: 111,000.
• North Carolina: 75,677.

The editorial sums it up well:

All of this is a reminder that free trade is a bedrock of American prosperity, and that it should be a bipartisan priority. U.S. leaders can and should press China to continue opening its economy to trade, not least for the benefit of the Chinese. But protectionist policies would only hurt millions of U.S. companies and consumers who benefit from the China trade.