October 2008 Edition

straight talk

China: When will we learn?

Whether it’s the Olympics or trade matters, promises haven’t been kept by key Asian player

By Stan Modic

China is in its 4,705th year of existence. Astrologically, it is celebrating "The Year of the Rat." For many U.S. machine shops owners forced out of business and Americans who have lost their jobs, due in large measure to China’s economic and social shenanigans, the astrological description may be most appropriate.

According to the web site, Horoscope.com/Chinesezodiac, Chinese associated with the Year of the Rat are charismatic, intelligent, and quick-witted. But on the negative side they are exploitive, deviant, calculative, and secretive.

China’s behavior in winning and then hosting the recently completed summer Olympic games in Beijing is only the latest example that the Chinese have no intention of keeping their promises either to their trading partners or their citizens.

When will we learn?

Chinese officials promised to establish protest zones for their citizens to voice dissent, but then prohibited their use. More than 70 licenses to permit protests were requested. None were approved. Visiting journalists were promised they could report what they saw. It didn’t happen. I could go on but the atrocities are well known.

It’s nothing new

In the early 1980s, I led a group of U.S. industrialists on a study mission to China. We visited plants and met with bankers, industrialists, factory managers, and workers. This was after President Nixon came knocking and China claimed it was opening its doors to do business with the world.

They were all but begging for foreign investment to help build a manufacturing infrastructure. To a person, they swore China had changed; things were different. Investment started to flow in.

Then came the Tiananmen Square massacre of marching protestors by government tanks. It was obvious China hadn’t changed its stripes at all. Investment stalled but then started again. The lure of cracking a market of 1.3 billion people that needed everything from toilet paper to automobiles was too tempting. Besides, other countries were already there. The United States was playing catch-up.

China needs U.S., too!

It turned out we didn’t cherry pick their market; they raped ours. They sent us toys covered with lead paint. China is stealing our technology and copying our musical and software CDs. Some of it is our own fault. China undervalues its currency.

"This makes Chinese exports artificially inexpensive and U.S. products too expensive in China," explains Peter Morici, economic professor at the University of Maryland.

The U.S. consumers, always looking for a bargain, snap up the cheap Chinese goods.

"Simply, money spent on Middle East oil, Chinese televisions and coffee makers, and Japanese and Korean cars can’t be spent on U.S. made goods," Morici writes. Consequently, jobs evaporate — more than 3 million already have — unless U.S. exports keep up with imports.

Maybe the Beijing Olympics has given us a little more insight into just how people living in the "Year of the Rat" operate. Maybe we need to set a trap or two in this new globalization game we are playing. Just maybe … Or do we continue to ask ourselves, "When will we learn?"

What do you think?
Will the information in this article increase efficiency or save time, money, or effort? Let us know by e-mail from our website at www.ToolingandProduction.com or e-mail the editor at dseeds@nelsonpub.com.