October 15, 2012 9:50AM # Some Refreshing Honesty in China-Bashing By [Simon Lester](https://www.cato.org/people/simon-lester) --- SHARE This is Dartmouth B‑School Professor Richard D’Aveni [writing in the *Washington Post*](http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-us-business-can-win-against-china/2012/10/12/7d773e80-0f3b-11e2-bd1a-b868e65d57eb_story.html) over the week-end, explaining how U.S. businesses “can win against China”: > Many people argue in favor of economic efficiency — investing capital and hiring labor anywhere in the world to reap the highest returns — that is theoretically achieved by an across-the-board opening of the U.S. domestic market. But this hurts American businesses in the long term. Fierce free-market competition with countries such as China drives down prices, which may make goods cheaper for consumers but comes at the expense of healthy profit levels. … Ah, so it’s high corporate profits he supports, and that takes precedence over lower prices for consumers. Well, yes, if you think high corporate profits should trump overall economic welfare, then minimizing free-market competition makes sense. On the other hand, if your goal is general economic growth rather than helping specific corporations, “fierce free-market competition” is actually a good thing! ##### Related Tags [Trade Policy](https://www.cato.org/trade-policy), [Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies](https://www.cato.org/herbert-stiefel-center-trade-policy-studies), [China](https://www.cato.org/china) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).