Does The Label Made In China Really Mean Anything?

"One year away from China" tells an interesting but frustrating real adventure story.

Just after Christmas, Sara suddenly discovered that 25 of the 39 Christmas gifts made in China were DVD, shoes, socks, toys and lamps.

They are all from China.

Faced with this situation, she could not help asking herself: if there are no Chinese products, can Americans still live?

Has globalization really entered our life quietly?

So Sara came up with the whim and decided to start the book from January 1, 2005, and he led his family to try not to buy Chinese goods for a year.

At the end of the book, Sara told a Chinese reporter to interview their family to try to find out all kinds of evidence to prove how miserable the days of Americans would not buy Chinese goods.

I believe that many Chinese readers also want to read from the book that Americans can no longer live without Chinese products, which will be a great satisfaction to our self-esteem.

Indeed, there is a lot of trouble in the days without "made in China".

As Sara said, the usual shopping has become a kind of torment in that year.

In order to buy shoes for his children, Sara ran around the shopping mall, and finally reluctantly ordered a pair of Italy children's shoes with a price of 68 dollars.

The children watched the "crocodile doctor", the inflatable swimming pool, the plastic lightsaber, and fingers, hoping that they would be able to buy Chinese toys as much as possible in the early years of the year.

All this shopping is a big headache for the Sara family.

If the Sara family continues to insist on life without "made in China", it may encounter more trouble, but it will never survive without "made in China".

Self respecting Chinese do not need to find national pride in the "made in China" of American life.

Why is the American market full of Chinese goods?

This is the result of economic globalization.

The ideal state of globalization is that there is no country, only market, all production factors and commodities can flow freely, capital and labor force are all the same.

However, after all, we still live in a nation state. The national boundary is an invisible high wall, making the flow of elements very difficult.

In particular, the flow of people is increasingly restricted.

China's labor force is cheap and the US labor force is expensive. In accordance with the principles of market economy, the United States should "buy" more Chinese labor force, that is, absorb more Chinese immigrants.

But even in the United States flaunting "freedom" countries, the free movement of labor is restricted.

If the labor force can not flow freely, globalization is only half the market economy.

However, as long as half of the open market economy is like air and water, it can take advantage of the situation.

If China's labor force fails to reach the United States, the capital of the United States will come to China.

If China's labor force fails to work in American factories, the US factories will simply move to China.

This is the world economy we are seeing now: foreign capital (including capital of the United States) invested and built factories in China, making use of the advantages of China's labor force to make products and sell them to the US market.

Yes, American families are enjoying Chinese shirts, shoes and toys.

But when I wrote this article, I used IBM's computer, Windows's operation system and Google's search engine.

Are there any families in China willing to test for a year without "made in America" life?

If we must comment on "made in China", what we need to focus on is not how much China has made, but what China is manufacturing.

When we talk about China's becoming the topic of "world factory" and "world manufacturing center", do not forget that this reflects China's competitiveness, but it also reminds us of the fact that migrant workers are holding low wages. Factories are pouring dirty sewage into rivers, and prices of imported commodities such as oil, steel, copper and rubber are rising steadily.

The cost of these growth means that we are subsidizing rich American families.

I wonder how Chinese readers feel when they feel incredible when they buy a pair of $more than 60 children's shoes.

The products we export to the United States will be even cheaper than those sold in China. How much profit and welfare will such an export and manufacturing bring to China?

Sara's eyes only focus on "made in China" label, but those "made in America" products will have "made in China" parts, and "made in China" products will have "made in America" parts, because the pattern of international trade has changed from products and products trade to intra product trade.

In the past, typical international trade was based on factor endowment, that is, a country has resources advantages in which production factors.

With abundant labor force, China will produce labor-intensive products, such as shoes. The United States has developed technology and rich capital, and will produce technology intensive and capital intensive products, such as aircraft.

China uses 800 million pairs of shoes for an American plane, which is the trade pattern.

However, intra product trade means that any product, any industry, will link the chain of production to different places, thereby gaining professional benefits.

For example, computers, chips will be produced in the United States, monitors may be produced in Taiwan, China, and mouse and keyboard will be produced in Guangdong, China, and finally assembled.

In the past, the production was on the assembly line, and now the production is more like the blocks that children play, and the pieces are broken together, which can be all kinds of "products".

It is said that Airbus has built a A320 assembly line in Tianjin Binhai New Area.

If the aircraft assembled in Tianjin is exported to foreign countries, will the aircraft also be labeled "made in China"?

In this era of globalization, in the pride and intoxication of some people, we really need to understand a question: what does the label of "made in China" mean?

The answer is clear and harsh: in most cases, it means initial processing, low technology, cheap goods, low wages, high energy consumption, resource type, high pollution, or that means nothing.