Joseph Carson of Alliance Capital Management decided to investigate how many manufacturing jobs China has gained at the expense of other countries. The result was somewhat surprising.

According to our analysis, between 1995 and 2002 roughly 22 million jobs were lost globally, a decline of 11%. Yet over the same period, global industrial production jumped more than 30%–a remarkable gain in productivity. Losses in the US of 2 million jobs over the same period matched the global average of 11%…

One of our more interesting findings is that, taken on its own, China’s job losses are double the average of the remaining 17 countries for the same seven-year period. Manufacturing employment in the 17 largest economies other than China fell a little more than 7%, from 96 million in 1995 to 89 million in 2002. In contrast, China’s fell a whopping 15% in the period, from 98 million in 1995 to 83 million in 2002.

For Discussion. Are these facts relevant to the debate over trade policy?