China's export growth is a sign of healthy appetites abroad in the globalized world, the Straits Times, a Singapore daily newspaper in English, said Monday in its editorial.

"China's exports have grown because the world finds it in its interest to buy at the low prices China offers, which in turn helps to keep consumption humming and economies growing," said the commentary.

It added that China's export growth "is more or less compensated for by decreases in other Asian production bases" as manufacturers have been moving their businesses from higher-cost Asian countries to China in recent years.

"The United States' overall trade deficit with Asia has been just about level in the past decade. A narrow focus on bilateral U. S.-China trade simply misses the big picture," the article noted.

It said that China imports more as the Chinese become richer and bigger spenders, which has the potential to iron out China's trade surplus.

The editorial warned that "any protectionist instinct stirred by China's trade surplus can only do harm."

Source: Xinhua