Scared Of China? Not Europe

[dArKeR]

Traffic in the center of Paris ground to a near-standstill after Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in town on Jan. 26. But the gridlock wasn't caused by anti-China protests. Far from it. Police cleared traffic from the city's main arteries so the Chinese leader's motorcade could whisk him to a series of welcome ceremonies, capped by a dinner at the Elysee

Palace where he was toasted by President Jacques Chirac and dozens of corporate chief executives. The French, those masters of the beau geste, even had the Eiffel Tower bathed in red floodlights in Hu's honor. By the time he left town, French companies had announced new deals with China worth more than a billion dollars, from the purchase of 21 Airbus planes by China Southern Airlines Co. to L'Oreal's (LORLY) acquisition of a Chinese cosmetics company.

What's going on here? At first glance, you would expect Europe to be quaking in its boots over an expected Chinese onslaught. The European Union's trade deficit with China is growing. With the euro stronger than ever, it's easy to imagine a scenario where Europeans snap up ever more made-in-China goods, in the process acquiring America's China Syndrome: a dangerously out-of-whack trade relationship and a dependence on a country that is taking away manufacturing jobs.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4161644/