Via the L'Ombre blog, a reader of The Economist explains:

Another point to consider, particularly with U.S. trade with China, is that the Bush administration over its tenure has substantially outperformed the previous Clinton administration in the trade arena in every meaningful measure.

U.S. exports to China have very nearly doubled, twice, during the six and counting years of the Bush presidency. By comparison, the value of U.S. exports to China barely doubled once during the course of President Clinton's eight years in office. That puts the annualized compound growth rate of U.S. exports to China at roughly 24% during President Bush's tenure while President Clinton clocked in at just 9-10%.

A direct comparison of the U.S.-China trade balance for each President during the course of their terms in office is available here. Please note that the difference in growth rates shown is largely a function the starting and ending trade level for the period under consideration.

Also, in comparison to the performance of the Clinton administration, the level of U.S. exports to China has seen a decrease in volatility, even while the value and volume of trade has surged. This suggests that Bush's trade team has focused more on facilitating the export of higher volume, lower value U.S. products than on high-visibility, big-ticket items (such as commercial aircraft) that seems to have been the major focus of the Clinton trade team.

To read more:

http://www.di2.nu/200704/05a.htm