It’s easy to oversimplify U.S.-China trade relations as a story of scrap materials going overseas while finished products come back, but the reality is becoming more complicated.

There’s still plenty of American refuse filling ships headed to Asia, but exports of manufactured goods are on the rise, according to new figures.

The reason: China’s growing affluence is prompting the people there to buy more stuff, to the benefit of American manufacturers.

Among them: Robinson Helicopter Co., a Torrance company with more than 1,200 employees. Kurt Robinson, its chief executive, said that last year China cracked the firm’s top-five export markets.

Read the full story in the September 8 weekly edition of the Business Journal.