China's trade practices have cost North Carolina nearly 80,000 jobs since 2001, according to an analysis being issued today by the N.C. Justice Center, an advocacy group.

The report says that booming trade between this country and China has crippled this state's manufacturing, textile and apparel industries. It says that trade is beginning to claim higher-paying jobs in electronics manufacturing and technical fields.

The study repeats allegations long made against China: that the Communist behemoth is able to undercut U.S. workers by suppressing workers' wages and subsidizing national businesses while skirting environmental and workplace safety standards.

The study was prepared by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington and is being distributed via state organizations that advocate for working-class and low-income people. The study says that the United States has lost 2.3 million jobs since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001 and trading channels opened.

The N.C. Justice Center is distributing the report as relations between North Carolina and China are at their highest.

The state is geared to do business with China, one of the world's fastest-growing economies. That nation is hungry for foreign investment and new markets.

North Carolina has a full-time trade representative in Hong Kong who lobbies for Asian business investment in this state. Businesses with a strong local presence -- such as Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks and Tekelec -- are angling for China's business.

But China's embrace of capitalism is primarily benefitting U.S. corporations and investors at the cost of this country's workers, said John Quinterno, research associate at the N.C. Budget and Tax Center, a project of the N.C. Justice Center.

China cost the state 79,800 jobs, when job gains are measured against job losses, the study says.

"The benefits are concentrated at the firm level or corporate level," Quinterno said. "They're bypassing the vast majority of working folk."

The debate is hardly new. Five years ago, free-trade advocate Sen. Elizabeth Dole in public speeches blamed China's trade practices for North Carolina's economic woes. Years before, angry American autoworkers staged events in which they crushed Japanese cars with sledge hammers for TV crews.

But many leaders defend North Carolina's engagement with China. They say this state is adapting to inevitable, global changes as it reinvents itself, going from a manufacturing and agricultural economy to a technology and research economy.

The changes are economically painful for some, but there is an upside: China is flooding this nation with cheap products, such as $9.99 jeans, that help hold down inflation and increase the purchasing power of ordinary Americans.

Chinese labor costs can be 80 percent cheaper than Americans', said John Kasarda, a business professor at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. But he said China's ascent is one of the economic miracle stories that has been repeated many times. The textile and manufacturing sectors migrated from industrial England to upstart New England, then to the post-Reconstruction American South, and later to Mexico and China.

"We did to England in the first half of the 20th century what China did to us in the last 20 years," Kasarda said. "We pulled the shoe industry, textiles, apparel and furniture all to North Carolina."

According to the state Department of Commerce, China is a major economic partner and one of North Carolina's top four export destinations, along with Canada, Japan and Mexico. China's biggest computer maker, Lenovo, invested $1.6 billion in 2005 to acquire IBM's personal computer laptop division. The company continues to expand its headquarters in Morrisville.

The N.C. Justice Center says that U.S. authorities must do more to protect U.S. workers by pressuring China to allow broader labor rights and end unfair subsidies.

Mike Hubbard, who directs the Gastonia branch of the National Council of Textile Organizations, said struggling rural businesses are no match for Chinese might.

"You're not competing against a company; you're competing against a government," Hubbard said.

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