Opinion: American companies should focus on selling products in China, out of politics

China’s crackdown on domestic dissent, paranoia about spies, persecution of civilian executives and harassment of foreign companies have fostered widespread fear, pessimism and deflation.

However, the China of the 1990s is not Japan. It has a powerful export machine that is not based simply on cheap currency, cheap labor, and subsidies. Otherwise, China’s consumer spending growth will be negative, not just slowing down due to real income shortfalls rather than just instability in the real estate sector.