NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - More evidence has appeared in the last couple of days that China is eating the United States' lunch, or at least nibbling away at it.

Today we've seen the U.S. trade deficit for November, another record, and have to admit again that our insatiable demand for cheap Chinese goods is a big factor keeping our trade gap swollen.

Tuesday a report from a Congressional bipartisan commission showed that the U.S. lost more than 1.6 million jobs to China from 1989 to 2003 and only gained 199,000 -- for a net loss of nearly 1.5 million. To make matters worst it's not just traditional manufacturing jobs like making clothes or sofas, it's jobs in high-tech industries like aerospace, where the U.S. once reigned supreme.

No U.S. policy maker -- or president -- can change the fact that Chinese wages are a mere fraction of wages in the U.S., a huge competitive advantage for Chinese companies. But the current administration has had four years to make some progress in getting China to stop pegging its currency to the dollar -- which holds prices of Chinese goods artificially low, and lower, even as the dollar declines in global currency markets.

Outgoing Commerce Secretary Don Evans has been talking about China's unfair trade practices like pegging its currency and subsidizing state-owned companies. When does talk stop and action begin? That's what many U.S. workers and companies increasingly want to know.  

Kathleen Hays is economics correspondent for CNN and contributes to Lou Dobbs Tonight.