Not only will One World Trade Center be built using Chinese-made glass, but German-made steel will be used on the outer façade of the building being erected to replace those knocked down in the September 11 attack.

German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp will provide the product, which it says the company is uniquely positioned to make.

“The quality of our product helped us to win the contract for this out-of-the-ordinary project. Ultimately we regard it as an accolade to be a part of this globally known project in the heart of New York which means so much to so many Americans,” the company said in a statement.

Others, however, may not see it that way. Some expressed outrage and disillusionment when it was announced last year that a Chinese company had beat out a Pittsburgh-based company for the right to provide much of the glass for the building.

“Imagine China,” U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) told The New York Times, “building a huge structure intended to be an important national symbol and importing glass from the United States to build it. There is no way the Chinese would do that.”

Not only is it a symbolic blow to have foreign companies provide materials for a building that is designed to be a symbol of America’s resiliency, strength and determination, but it will also take away potential American jobs.

The company said that it holds an expertise that cannot be replicated in making the steel product. In the years before America’s failed trade policies allowed its manufacturing base to be devastated, that technology and expertise would have been available in America.

“Such complex jobs call for supreme technical competencies and a wealth of manufacturing experience,” the company said. “With a high-tech solution we were able to win our extremely demanding customers over to this jointly developed, high-quality German product.”

The decision to use Chinese-made glass in buildings that will stand on the site of the former World Trade Center Buildings has drawn the ire of many, including The Skyscraper Safety Campaign, a coalition of safety advocates and relatives of Sept 11. victims.

“It is a well-known fact that numerous Chinese products have inconsistent and questionable quality standards, as seen in the major safety debacles and constant recalls involving lead in children’s toys, contaminated toothpastes, tainted baby formula and pet foods,” the group said in a statement.

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