Labor unrest across China this summer, which began at a Honda transmission plant in Foshan, has sparked a flurry of debate about international labor policy amidst growing alarm over the strength of the US labor market. AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka reported, after traveling across the US recently, that Americans “are looking for economic patriotism,” which leading some to ask if a pernicious yellow-peril-ism could also be on the rise. Nation reporter Robert Dreyfuss has dutifully laid out the contours of the debate with some surprising conclusions. For one, it appears that former SEIU president, Andy Stern, whose Change to Win coalition has experienced a complete organizational meltdown, has long advocated a policy towards China which is far more “internationalist” than the AFL-CIO. To his right, Leo Gerard, United Steel Workers President, champion of the Battle of Seattle, and a founder of Workers Uniting, has been heading the charge against Chinese currency manipulation, environmental violations, China’s reneging on WTO agreements, and much much more. As Gerard exclaims in the Huffington Post, “it’s time for America to flip the bird back.” Gerard has also recently been appointed by Obama to sit on the President’s Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations. The saber-rattling has begun. The Economic Policy Institute, a non-for-profit organization associated with American labor unions, has come out with a report which argues that the Chinese trade deficit will cost half a million US jobs in 2010. Debatable.