The China Threat: New Facts or Old Scares?

Andrew Ross considers how and why China's economic growth has raised anxiety levels in countries like the US

Drawing on his field work in high-tech Yangtze Delta workplaces, Ross considers how and why China's economic growth has raised anxiety levels in countries like the US, both among workers and traditional elites. If it constitutes a threat, he argues, it is not because of the obvious reasons.

Andrew Ross is Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. A regular contributor to The Nation, the Village Voice, and Artforum, he is the author of nine books, including Fast Boat to China: Corporate Flight and the Consequences of Free Trade–Lessons from Shanghai: Low Pay, High Profile: The Global Push for Fair Labor; No-Collar: The Humane Workplace and its Hidden Costs; and The Celebration Chronicles: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Property Value in Disney's New Town. He has also edited several books, including No Sweat: Fashion, Free Trade, and the Rights of Garment Workers, and, most recently, Anti-Americanism.