Corporate greed strikes again. The turn of the century marked a decided shift of mass industrial production to Eastern shores. Everything from Swatch watches to SIM cards and BMX bicycles to exquisite cars are manufactured between Shanghai and Shenzhen. Why, you ask? Cheap labour and excellent infrastructure! Three Chinese graduate engineers do in China what one high school graduate does for in the US.
China’s only real competitor in terms of cheap labour and technical skills, India, is light years behind in terms of infrastructure. China keeps India nervously busy about its defense. Indians, with that nauseating ‘nationalistic’ zeal, take the bait all too easily spending billions of dollars for the cause. However, should China ever decide to attack India, the whole affair might finish faster than a 20-20 cricket match. So, China marches on. Alone.
Pioneering companies must wake up and evaluate the free exchange of information. They need to clearly define how much is too much to prevent mass imitation. Circa 2009, these companies are absolutely thrilled with the profits made due to manufacturing in the East. But what happens, say in 2015, when China decides to increase export taxes for foreign companies exponentially? They will of course go a step further by decreasing export taxes for local companies dramatically. We’re all proper screwed then, aren’t we?
Chinese goods are and will continue to flood the market. Let’s make no mistake about it, these products are on par with American/European ones.
This isn’t because of a remarkable uplift in Chinese innovation. It is because this information was gift wrapped with a seal of ‘secrecy’ and presented to the Chinese.
To be crystal clear, China is not the enemy. Greed is. If immediate profits matter more than tradition then be prepared to be wiped out by cheap emerging competition.
- Fahad Saleem
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