Is China protectionist or helping foreign business?

An April 28th Wall Street Journal headline caught my eye, "Foreign Businesses Say China is Growing More Protectionist", then two days later the same paper proclaimed, "China's Stimulus Spurs U.S. Business." So which is it?

The American Chamber of Commerce stated that "protectionism was one of its major concerns this year" and the European Chamber of Commerce worries that Chinese companies want to "create monopolies or oligopolies and have less competition."

Chinese officials counter that Western countries anti-dumping laws and the U.S. attempt to insert a "buy American" clause in the U.S. stimulus bill aren't any different than their own attempts to stimulate their local economy.

China's $585 billion stimulus is largely being spent on Chinese-only projects, such as the high-speed rail project between Beijing and Shanghai. The 4/30 WSJ suggests that the Chinese-only clauses are actually helpful in that the Chinese are not dumping cheap steel on the world markets which would send prices in a spiral.

American firms, in China, directly benefiting from the Chinese stimulus include excavator and tire makers and fast-food chains. China's infrastructure spending went into overdrive when the stimulus was announced and many projects were fast-tracked. The U.S. is unable to match the pace of the Chinese building.

Firms not benefiting are FedEx and DHL who got shut out of China when a new postal law banning "foreign companies from delivering express mail inside China" was passed a few weeks ago.