Nathan don't give yourself an aneurysm.
It's almost comical that people can't resist linking opposition to the nasty Chinese communist-capitalists with the U.S. ruling class, notwithstanding the blatant indulgence of the PRC in U.S. foreign policy, featuring but not limited to its fervent drive for PNTR. I guess we should call it fighting the last revolution.
What I see tells me the ROC is much to be preferred to the PRC on progressive grounds. I guess ROC doesn't have as much nationalized property, but you would have a hard time proving workers in the PRC are better off, since there are vast areas in which outsiders are not even permitted to venture, no? Development in cities is nice, but why apologize for the rural shit-holes? I presume there is more freedom of expression in the ROC too. Maybe that's wrong; I don't know. We had a group of ROC trade unionists visiting; their concerns re: job flight to PRC were similar to those of U.S. unions, although they didn't look optimistic. At all.
People like to play this as U.S. Imp v. the poor Third World nations. More accurate would be U.S. workers versus authoritarian "developmental" states, a.k.a. bosses, in league with corporate bosses and the two major parties (otherwise the object of much excoriation). With similar logical consistency, the free-trade left opposes job flight, but supports job arrival. Go figure.
Perhaps what is going on here is not western "yellow peril" notions, but some kind of excessive solicitousness towards the PRC on 'anti-racist' racial grounds. What else could it be? The PRC is practically impregnable, in military terms. Its economy has been booming. Capitalism is going great guns; foreign capital is flourishing. Human rights are non-existent. State brutality is ubiquitous. What's to like?
mbs