Fishman, Ted C. China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World. New York: Scribner Book Company, 2005. 352 pp. J.T. Craig
aegis 2006 112 craig
In the midst of America’s global war on terror, and the constant violence in Iraq, it is easy to forget about the other issues that America as a nation must face in our generation. The one issue that looms above all others is the rise to economic dominance that is now occurring in China. Aspects of this problem penetrate the news. Reports of outsourcing, of factories closing, of global corporate giants such as Wal-Mart using Chinese workers as cheap labor, are blips on the non-stop news crawl of the 24 hour networks. The full picture, however, of what China’s rise implicates is almost never addressed, and other than politicians using outsourcing as part of their stump speeches, solutions to the “China problem” are not often discussed. Ted C. Fishman’s book, China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World, aims to change the lack of knowledge and discussion about how China affects the American economy, and America’s standing in the global power structure. To even begin contemplating all of the ways in which China is growing and thriving, one needs to understand that China has, at a low estimate, 1.3 billion people living there. There are most likely many more people, perhaps up to 1.7 billion people, but they live in rural areas where a census may not reach them. This, I believe, is the key factor in understanding the enormity of China’s potential. The amount of skilled and unskilled labor at the disposal of Chinese companies, and American and other corporations operating within China, is staggering. It is not that the Chinese are the lowest paid workers in the world (they aren’t) that makes them so enticing to business interests, but rather, that “China…sits in a relatively stable part of the globe and offers the world’s manufacturers a reliable, docile, and capable industrial workforce, groomed by government enforced discipline.” The sheer amount of people, combined with the largest urban migration seen in the history of the world (90-300 million people have left China’s farm lands for the cities), and the fact that America, and the rest of the world, are addicted to cheap merchandise to buy, is creating an economic juggernaut unlike any ever seen. The more money that is poured into China, the more we and the world facilitate China’s power. The reason why American manufacturers, along with Europeans and every other country, are being beat by the Chinese is because they have a docile workforce that learns to craft tools, ornaments, cars, etc., with precise skill by hand. It is cheaper to pay a laborer in China to craft a car part, or machine part, than it is to buy a multimillion dollar machine and computer system to do the same job. As the Chinese begin to infiltrate and expand on each potential job market, their skill and quality of work increases. Chinese electronics, clothes, computers, DVDs, and everything else are made cheaper, and of equal if not better quality. Meanwhile, China as a nation has enough people to create the largest crop of technical and science students and workers ever seen. Not only is science and engineering the ideal field for many young Chinese students, the Chinese are also sending out students across the globe, learning from the top institutes, and returning to China, where investment and work opportunities eclipse those available anywhere else. In essence, there is a lot of potential for recruitment of scientists and engineers in China, but the non-Chinese world is losing the opportunity to use them. Rather, we educate them with the best technology, and then lose them back to their home country. The problem is this: America and the world are now bound together with China. To attempt to stunt the growth of China by not investing in it would not stop its economy. Not only does America and the world depend on Chinese products (cheap in price, not in quality) to be able to spend and consume as much as we do, but we are also bound to China by China’s
