Innocents (not) abroad: China's outbound tourism industry is booming--but not to America.(CHINA)

THE SIZE OF THE TRADE DEFICIT with China is one of the hottest potatoes in American economic policy these days. It is about to get a little hotter, thanks to Beijing's highly provocative, if hitherto largely overlooked, controls on outbound tourism.

In theory the United States should be a major beneficiary--perhaps the major beneficiary--of a recent trend for Chinese tourists to travel abroad. In practice, however, the United States ranks low on the list of Chinese tourist destinations. On the most recent figures available, it received only one-quarter as many Chinese tourists ...