true, if a chinese ton is 5 times a US ton (Score 1)

If by "They buy a ton of stuff from us" you mean $16.9 billion and "We buy a ton of stuff from them" you mean $81.2 billion. That would be $64.3 billion leaving the US in 2006. Our businesses have offices there because that's where the money is. http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700. html#2006

Then again, it seems that also means they need us more than we need them which should make them friends indeed.