The strategy appears to be directed at both Congress and the U.S. population in general, and is reminiscent of similar campaigns that derailed the proposed 2005 acquisition of Unocal by China’s Cnooc Ltd. (NYSE: CEO) and the attempt in 2006 by Dubai Ports World to acquire the management of six major U.S. ports. Both acquisitions were scuttled when issues of national interest and security were raised.

Dish Network appears to be launching a counterattack to a reported threat by Softbank to withhold a piece of the underwriting of the planned IPO of China’s Alibaba e-commerce website from any bank that offers to help fund Dish Network’s offer for Sprint. Softbank owns a one-third interest in Alibaba.

The new Dish Network website also conjures a threat from the use of Chinese-made network equipment to U.S. national security. In February 2011, the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) forced China’s Huawei Technologies to unwind its $2 million acquisition of bankrupt U.S. networking startup 3Leaf Systems.

It is hard to fault Dish Network for running out a strategic attack that has proved successful on at least three other occasions. The company’s arguments against an acquisition of Sprint by Softbank fit easily into the mold carved out by others. The one significant difference is that Softbank is based in Japan, one of the U.S.’s staunchest allies. It will be a lot harder to persuade Congress — and CFIUS — that Softbank poses a serious threat to U.S. national security.

The U.S.-China Business Council, a nonprofit organization that promotes trade between the two nations, has released data on exports to China from each state. Last year, Texas exported more than $10 billion in goods to the country. California exported more than $13 billion. Based on the gross export data provided by the U.S.-China Business Council, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 10 states exporting the most goods to China.’

Click here to see which states send the most goods to China

While U.S. exports to China grew by nearly 300% in the past 10 years, the growth has slowed substantially in the past several years as China’s economic growth suffered from the global recession. U.S. exports to China increased by just 6.5% last year. Despite the slowing growth, it was still better than nearly all other export partners, said Daniel Anthony, research director at Trade Partnership, a Washington D.C. economic research consulting firm.

For the first couple of months of this year, U.S. exports to China rose by 4.3%. While it was far less than previous years, “the rest of the world are up 0.2%.” explained Anthony. “So, in a lot of ways, at least for the first couple months of 2013, export Growth to China is really the only game in town.”

The states that export the most goods benefit from demand that remains strong in China but is weak in most other countries. According to Anthony, in the first few months of this year, machinery exports to China rose by 13% and declined by 7% to the rest of the world. Computers and electronics exports to China increased by 18% and fell by 3.4% to the rest of the world. This benefits states like California, which alone accounts for well more than a quarter of all U.S. computer and electronics shipped to China.

Other states that have benefited from growing Chinese demand include Washington, due to increased demand for its aerospace industry. Ohio and Illinois are profiting from increased demand of soybeans and other crops. Michigan has benefited from rising auto shipments to China, which grew 23% in the first few months of 2013.

Not all evidence suggests that trade with China is unconditionally positive for all Americans. According to the Economic Policy Institute, between 2001 and 2011, America’s trade deficit with China led to the displacement of 2.87% of all jobs in California. In Minnesota, another top exporter, this figure was 2.66%. However, Anthony notes, “it doesn’t make sense for the U.S. to hang on to low-value jobs.” Instead, he argues, Americans should focus on promoting jobs that utilize the U.S.’s relative strengths and advantages, while exporting less valuable work.

To determine the 10 states with the most exports to China, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed figures provided by the U.S.-China Business Council, a nonprofit organization that promotes trade relations between China and the U.S. All figures provided by the council are not inflation adjusted. Data on exports for different metropolitan areas comes from the International Trade Administration (ITA) and are for 2011, while figures on crop exports are produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Economic Research Service and are also as of 2011.

These are the 10 states sending the most goods to China.

Like other Chinese solar makers, JA Solar appears to have turned a corner as far as gross margin is concerned. The company reported a positive gross margin of 6% in the first quarter, up from a negative 4.6% in the fourth quarter and a positive 2.1% in the first quarter of last year. The company’s net loss fell sequentially by 65%.

For the current quarter, JA Solar expects to ship a total of 410 to 430 megawatts, identical with its estimate for the first quarter, when it shipped nearly 443 megawatts of modules and cells. Total shipments for the full year were forecast at 1,700 to 1,900 megawatts, unchanged from the end of the fourth quarter of 2012.

The company’s CEO said:

Shipments exceeded the high end of guidance in the first quarter thanks to solid sales across our key markets, particularly in regions with higher ASPs, resulting in improved gross margins and a significant reduction in net loss. We performed especially well in Japan, a high-ASP market, which accounted for a record 38% of our module shipments in the quarter, while module sales to China declined from last quarter due to seasonality and our shift in focus to markets with more attractive margins.

The company repaid $119 million in convertible debt that came due last week. In March, JA Solar and ReneSolar Ltd. (NYSE: SOL) received new loans from the China Development Bank. ReneSolar reported a quarterly net loss last week.

Shares of JA Solar are up nearly 14% in premarket trading this morning, at $6.38, which would be a new 52-week high if it holds. The current 52-week range is $2.91 to $6.14. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of around $5.05 before today’s results were announced.

The loss per American depositary share (ADS) totaled $0.45. One ADS equals two ordinary shares.

In its outlook for the second quarter, ReneSola said it expects shipments of solar wafers and modules to total 700 to 720 megawatts, up from shipments of 662 megawatts in the first quarter. Revenues are forecast in the range of $310 million to $330 million and gross margin is expected to be 3% to 5%. For the full year, shipments are expected to total 2,700 to 2,900 megawatts. The consensus estimates call for second-quarter revenues of $296.5 million and full-year revenues of $1.05 billion. EPS loss estimates are $0.27 for the second quarter and $1.15 for the full year.

The company’s CEO said:

Over the past year, we have worked hard to transform our company into a leading global solar brand and technology leader. … Although we are seeing the solar market stabilize, a persistent demand-supply imbalance, coupled with competitive pricing, continues to impact our business and the overall industry.

Gross margins in the first quarter were negative 2%, compared with a negative margin of 3.8% in the first quarter of 2012. The good news is that double-digit negative gross margins appear to be well behind the firm, with the outlook for a positive margin in the current quarter.

ReneSola also said it plans to offer residential solar PV solutions soon, as well as continue R&D on downstream products like inverters and small-scale storage systems. The company appears to understand that it needs to capture more of the revenue from the downstream side of the solar business, and it is doing something about it. What remains to be seen is whether ReneSola waited too long to make this move.

ReneSola’s shares are down 6.8% in premarket trading this morning, at $2.04, in a 52-week range of $1.08 to $2.85. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of around $2.00 before today’s results were announced.

Pegatron has won contracts from Apple to build the iPhone 4S and the iPad mini. A report in the Financial Times this morning notes that Pegatron is seeking to increase its current workforce of 100,000 by 40%, still a far cry from Foxconn’s million or so workers.

The split between Apple and Foxconn apparently has less to do with the deaths and attempted suicides at Foxconn’s mainland China plants in 2010 than it does with cost. According to the FT, Foxconn tried to pass on to Apple wage increases for its Chinese workers and some factory relocation costs. Apple did not bite.

Foxconn has tried to diversify, but its success at doing so has been spotty. Apple has said that it would open at least one U.S. manufacturing in 2013. Foxconn employs about 3,000 U.S. workers at plants in Texas and California, and a natural assumption would be that Foxconn would get the additional work from Apple. That is not such an obvious conclusion now.

That message has not been lost on oil traders, who are pushing down their bids on both West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent crude by about 1% this morning. This morning’s report that China’s industrial output grew by a lower-than-expected 9.3% is likely the immediate cause of the drop. Economists were expecting a 9.4% rise.

The connection between economic growth and demand for crude is pretty much a given, so the drop in crude prices following China’s report is no surprise. What is surprising, perhaps, is that money managers have increased their net-long positions in WTI.

According to last Friday’s Commitment of Traders report from the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), net-long positions among money managers rose 5.5%. The thinking has to be that the WTI market, which is currently backwardated (near-term prices are higher than futures prices), will shift to contango to match the current contango in the market for Dated Brent.

It is equally likely that Brent prices will soften due to the rising supply of gasoline in Europe. The rise in gasoline inventories is due almost entirely to lower demand and there is little indication that demand will increase. That will push down the price of gasoline and the price of crude will follow.

The WTI market could easily move to contango, but the whole curve will move downward, pulling Brent prices down at the same time.

The Financial Times this morning is citing “two people familiar with the situation” who say that Softbank, which owns about one-third of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba, has been telling investment bankers that if they want a piece of Alibaba’s coming initial public offering (IPO), the banks had better pass on helping fund an offer from Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) for Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S). Softbank’s $20.1 billion offer for Sprint has been topped by an offer of $25.5 billion from Dish.

Alibaba’s IPO is the hottest thing on Wall Street since the IPO of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB). The IPO is expected to take place in the fourth quarter of this year or early next year at a valuation in the neighborhood of $60 billion to $80 billion. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) sold about half of its 40% stake in Alibaba back to the Chinese firm late last year for total consideration of about $7.6 billion. That placed a valuation of around $40 billion on Alibaba.

A consortium of nine banks, including Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS), Deutsche Bank A.G. (NYSE: DB), HSBC Holdings PLC (NYSE: HBC), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) recently refinanced $8 billion in Alibaba debt at lower interest, and the nine are believed to have the inside track on the coming IPO.

How credible is a threat from Softbank to withhold the IPO from banks that cooperate with Dish? Investment banks are almost desperate for profitable Asian business and Softbank’s message is pretty clear, even if the Japanese company has not said as much directly. But even though Softbank owns a big chunk of Alibaba, the Japanese probably cannot tell the Chinese which banks to use. The banks will get the message without having to be told.

According to a Wall Street Journal article on the Chinese economy:

Industrial output, China’s main monthly growth measure, increased 9.3% year-on-year in April. That’s slower than the pace of growth for much of last year. But it’s an improvement on March’s data and allays fears that the world’s second-largest economy is heading into a tail spin.

There was no shortage of holes in the ground being dug. New residential property construction accelerated. Investment in railways gathered steam and spending on other public works remained strong. Cement production increased 8.7% year-on-year in April up from 6.9% in March.

But the days of investment leading super-charged growth look numbered. Productive investment should generate output in the year it is made and the years that follow. A recent study by the International Monetary Fund suggests that China’s massive infrastructure investment has only a short-lived impact — suggesting wasteful allocation of capital.

For China-based firms, the percentage of shares short is not available because the companies are also listed on other exchanges.

Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ) saw short interest rise by 8.3% to 2.08 million shares, about 6.8% of the company’s total float.

First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) short interest drop by 7.4% to 17.07 million shares, which represents 28.1% of the company’s float.

GT Advanced Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: GTAT) showed an increase of 8% in short interest to 41.34 million shares, about 34.9% of GT’s float.

MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (NYSE: WFR) showed an increase of 8% in short interest to 16.88 million shares, or about 7.3% of MEMC’s float.

SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) saw short interest rise by 4.1% to 9.52 million shares, or 23.9% of the company’s total float.

JA Solar Holdings Co. Ltd. (NASDAQ: JASO) showed a drop of 17% in short interest to 2.21 million shares.

LDK Solar Co. Inc. (NYSE: LDK) saw short interest fall by 11.9% to 3.03 million shares.

Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. (NYSE: STP) showed a rise of 11.2% in short interest to 18.46 million shares.

Trina Solar Ltd. (NYSE: TSL) saw a short interest decline of 2.3% to 15.79 million shares.

Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. (NYSE: YGE) showed a drop of 0.3% in short interest to 7.51 million shares.

In the prior two-week period, Yingli’s short interest rose by 50%. In the most recent two weeks, the very modest rise appears to have drawn a line on just how bad investors think the company’s prospects are. The decline in short interest in LDK is likely due to a lack of fallout from its missed debt repayment. The company may be able to hold on, but that is still questionable. So far the government has not ridden to the rescue for either company, but the thinking may be that it is about to do so.

The Xinhua news agency reports on China’s inflation in April:

China’s consumer inflation slightly accelerated in April, but still within a mild range that leaves room for policymakers to fine-tune policies to support the tepid economic recovery, official data showed Thursday.

China’s consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, grew 2.4 percent year on year in April, up from 2.1 percent in March but well below the year’s control target of 3.5 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The rise is largely in line with the market forecast of around 2.3 percent.

The NBS attributed the gain mainly to an unusual increase in vegetable prices during that month as low temperatures and scarce rainfalls disrupted supplies.

In April, food prices, which account for nearly one-third of weighting in China’s CPI, increased 4 percent year on year, with the prices of vegetables rising 5.9 percent, NBS data showed.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices in April edged up 0.2 percent.