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China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World
Predicting economic challenges that the author believes will occur as a result of China's growing ability to produce U.S. products more cheaply, an economic analysis draws on hundreds of interviews with Chinese, American, and European workers and businesspeople that draw conclusions about China's future as a superpower. 75,000 first printing.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published February 28, 2005
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May 2, 2008
There is a 20% chance that you are Chinese and an 80% chance that you are afraid of the Chinese. Perhaps you are afraid the Chinese will steal your manufacturing job, or feed your child lead paint, or poison you at bedtime because your herbal tea was dried using the hot exhaust of dirty trucks. In China, Inc., Ted Fishman examines what’s going on in China and why that country is fast becoming the West’s new foreign bogey-man.
Fishman, who has been a floor trader and ran his own trading firm, has written for the New York Times Magazine, Money, Esquire, and Business 2.0; his essays and reports have appeared in other titles as well. According to interviews, Fishman first became interested in China in the late 1970s, after working and living in Asia and seeing the first hints of what China could become. In 2003 and 2004 he travelled through the nascent economic powerhouse to investigate where China’s, and by extension the world’s, economy was heading.
China, Inc. begins with a series of scenario-based anecdotes, the purpose of which is to illustrate how pervasive China is becoming in the everyday lives of Americans, as businesspeople and as consumers. These anecdotes range from observations of cheap Chinese scooters in an auto supply store to stories of people’s livelihoods being usurped by the China Price to Chinese artists making inroads in the collector’s markets.
The story behind these anecdotes is told in numbers; behind an inflated gas price and a deflated pair of Levi’s is a national economy stretching catlike to eagerly paw at the number four position in the ranks of world economies. With a GDP of nearly $2 trillion (in 2005, the year Fishman’s book first saw print), China’s economic kitten is no match for America’s $12 trillion fat cat, but they do grow so fast.
Astonishingly fast, in fact. Fishman relates the stories of Chinese metropolises that spring up, as if overnight: fresh and covered in that new-city smell, Texas-sized and ready to rock. These fast-paced developments, carrying encouraging names like “Special Economic Zone”, are only part of the story, as highways and magnet trains pop up to match pace with and connect the swollen nerve centers of Chinese industry and commerce.
It sounds like SimCity set on warp speed in the hands of a competent player, but this analogy ignores exactly what the computer game has ignored: the individual. Fishman tells the individual’s story in the chapter “The Revolution Against the Communist Revolution,” starting with the poorest of the world’s farmers, the Chinese earth-tillers struggling under the yoke of Mao’s cultural revolution. Unable to provide for themselves after meeting government quotas, i.e., going hungry after feeding the mouths in the city, Chinese farmers began practicing under-the-table capitalism simply by selling off their surplus yields. Needing surplus yields to get started, the incentive to produce took root and, according to Fishman, “yields from the land climbed dramatically.” The secret market created by the farmers was borne out of desperation, and at risk of prison or death, the conspiracy flourished and the entrepreneurial spirit bloomed (page 47).
Fishman then describes the situation in which rural Chinese pin the fortunes and hopes of an entire family or village on a single youth, whom they shuffle off to the city for opportunity in the hopes they will return with gift baskets, cash, and clothes from the Gap. The result is a widespread migration of youth and talent from rural to urban China, leaving behind the older and incapable. Bundle this migration with the loss of farmland to the cartoonish spread of city centers, and it’s no wonder China is an importer of food, particularly American food. China’s development “mirrors the growth of other economies that ... have helped turn American agriculture into an export powerhouse” (page 140).
It is not the plight of the Chinese farmer, however, that keeps American manufacturing awake at night, nor is it what lights the eyes of a Wal-Mart purchaser looking for new ways to “roll back” prices. In the chapter called “The China Price,” Fishman tells us what these nightmares and dreams are made of.
The China Price is defined as the lowest possible price for a given commodity, whether it’s a widget or a gadget or a DVD player. There is no single factor that grants this price the proper noun that brands it with a nationality, but a confluence of factors:
There is the push from big-box retailers to continually drop prices, which means they will only do business with suppliers who can commit to annual price drops. There is the habit of the Chinese government to hand out loans to business with a nod and a wink that indicates it need never be paid back. At the same time, the Chinese government “looks out for” its local concerns by requiring any foreign companies doing business in China to share its intellectual property with their Chinese partners. There is the mind-boggling mass of people willing to do just about any work for just about any wage. There is the artificial correlation between the American Dollar and the Chinese Yuan. There is also the bigger-than-anything nature of Chinese manufacturing, which can result in a factory output so large that there is no choice but to set an impossibly low “China Price” on the output (page 157).
There is only one China Price, and if you cannot match it, the purchaser of your goods knows exactly where to look for someone who can. This is why we see manufacturing flooding into China’s factories, and it’s not just American jobs that are being poached; primarily it is other Asian economies that see their contracts move to China, even though Chinese labor is not necessarily the cheapest. Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam, even Japan see factories at home close as eleven more spring up in the dirty fringes of a Special Economic Zone.
The rewards of the China Price do not come without risk, and it is to these risks that Fishman attempts to turn the reader’s eyes. The AP wire is already overflowing with the latest “Chinese junk kills Americans” tale, be it lead paint on a toy or counterfeit infant formula (or soy sauce distilled from human hair, page 143), but other risks hide in the untold footnote of the China Price.
China invests in the US, just differently than how the US invests in China. China buys up American debt, through treasury bonds, mortgage bundles, and other instruments. Even as consumers bask in the glow of China Priced goods and services, freely tossing wads of disposable income to the overseas bogey-man ($170 billion in 2004, according to page 254), they become further obligated to the Chinese as the portfolio of American debt instruments swells. Not only that, but institutional investors representing the pensions of American workers invest heavily in companies that in turn invest billions in China (page 258).
China has its currency, the yuan, pegged to the American dollar. When the dollar rises, so does the yuan; when the dollar falls, the yuan floats down with it. While this used to be good news (as when China alone kept a stable currency as other Asian nations experienced economic crises), today this means that China is a “global bargain bin,” where it might cost a million dollars to build a factory that would cost $1.4 million elsewhere (page 261). Instead of being a level playing field, the yuan’s dollar-peg invites criticism from those who allege China has manufactured an artificial advantage for themselves in addition to cheap DVD players and bootleg movies to play in them.
One takeaway from Fishman’s book is to beware an angry China. China buys so much American debt that one could conceive of ways in which China can pull the ever-strengthening strings of the American economy. China stockpiles enough dollars that it could flood the global currency markets if it decided on a spending spree; China pushes down interest rates through its debt investments, and through the China Price China takes American’s money both coming and going. One of these days China might drop the tab off on the table, and we’ll wonder if all the gluttony was worth it.
It remains to be seen whether China’s pretensions to capitalism are sustainable. Certainly, the nation seems to operate its own reality-distortion field in which one can decide, seemingly on a whim, to scrub the skies of pollution in advance of the Olympic games through an ambitious program of cloud-seeding. Similarly, the entire engine driving China’s economy seems powered not just by coal and oil, but by sheer force of will. If we let that will grow too strong, China might end up drinking our milkshake after all.
Fishman, who has been a floor trader and ran his own trading firm, has written for the New York Times Magazine, Money, Esquire, and Business 2.0; his essays and reports have appeared in other titles as well. According to interviews, Fishman first became interested in China in the late 1970s, after working and living in Asia and seeing the first hints of what China could become. In 2003 and 2004 he travelled through the nascent economic powerhouse to investigate where China’s, and by extension the world’s, economy was heading.
China, Inc. begins with a series of scenario-based anecdotes, the purpose of which is to illustrate how pervasive China is becoming in the everyday lives of Americans, as businesspeople and as consumers. These anecdotes range from observations of cheap Chinese scooters in an auto supply store to stories of people’s livelihoods being usurped by the China Price to Chinese artists making inroads in the collector’s markets.
The story behind these anecdotes is told in numbers; behind an inflated gas price and a deflated pair of Levi’s is a national economy stretching catlike to eagerly paw at the number four position in the ranks of world economies. With a GDP of nearly $2 trillion (in 2005, the year Fishman’s book first saw print), China’s economic kitten is no match for America’s $12 trillion fat cat, but they do grow so fast.
Astonishingly fast, in fact. Fishman relates the stories of Chinese metropolises that spring up, as if overnight: fresh and covered in that new-city smell, Texas-sized and ready to rock. These fast-paced developments, carrying encouraging names like “Special Economic Zone”, are only part of the story, as highways and magnet trains pop up to match pace with and connect the swollen nerve centers of Chinese industry and commerce.
It sounds like SimCity set on warp speed in the hands of a competent player, but this analogy ignores exactly what the computer game has ignored: the individual. Fishman tells the individual’s story in the chapter “The Revolution Against the Communist Revolution,” starting with the poorest of the world’s farmers, the Chinese earth-tillers struggling under the yoke of Mao’s cultural revolution. Unable to provide for themselves after meeting government quotas, i.e., going hungry after feeding the mouths in the city, Chinese farmers began practicing under-the-table capitalism simply by selling off their surplus yields. Needing surplus yields to get started, the incentive to produce took root and, according to Fishman, “yields from the land climbed dramatically.” The secret market created by the farmers was borne out of desperation, and at risk of prison or death, the conspiracy flourished and the entrepreneurial spirit bloomed (page 47).
Fishman then describes the situation in which rural Chinese pin the fortunes and hopes of an entire family or village on a single youth, whom they shuffle off to the city for opportunity in the hopes they will return with gift baskets, cash, and clothes from the Gap. The result is a widespread migration of youth and talent from rural to urban China, leaving behind the older and incapable. Bundle this migration with the loss of farmland to the cartoonish spread of city centers, and it’s no wonder China is an importer of food, particularly American food. China’s development “mirrors the growth of other economies that ... have helped turn American agriculture into an export powerhouse” (page 140).
It is not the plight of the Chinese farmer, however, that keeps American manufacturing awake at night, nor is it what lights the eyes of a Wal-Mart purchaser looking for new ways to “roll back” prices. In the chapter called “The China Price,” Fishman tells us what these nightmares and dreams are made of.
The China Price is defined as the lowest possible price for a given commodity, whether it’s a widget or a gadget or a DVD player. There is no single factor that grants this price the proper noun that brands it with a nationality, but a confluence of factors:
There is the push from big-box retailers to continually drop prices, which means they will only do business with suppliers who can commit to annual price drops. There is the habit of the Chinese government to hand out loans to business with a nod and a wink that indicates it need never be paid back. At the same time, the Chinese government “looks out for” its local concerns by requiring any foreign companies doing business in China to share its intellectual property with their Chinese partners. There is the mind-boggling mass of people willing to do just about any work for just about any wage. There is the artificial correlation between the American Dollar and the Chinese Yuan. There is also the bigger-than-anything nature of Chinese manufacturing, which can result in a factory output so large that there is no choice but to set an impossibly low “China Price” on the output (page 157).
There is only one China Price, and if you cannot match it, the purchaser of your goods knows exactly where to look for someone who can. This is why we see manufacturing flooding into China’s factories, and it’s not just American jobs that are being poached; primarily it is other Asian economies that see their contracts move to China, even though Chinese labor is not necessarily the cheapest. Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam, even Japan see factories at home close as eleven more spring up in the dirty fringes of a Special Economic Zone.
The rewards of the China Price do not come without risk, and it is to these risks that Fishman attempts to turn the reader’s eyes. The AP wire is already overflowing with the latest “Chinese junk kills Americans” tale, be it lead paint on a toy or counterfeit infant formula (or soy sauce distilled from human hair, page 143), but other risks hide in the untold footnote of the China Price.
China invests in the US, just differently than how the US invests in China. China buys up American debt, through treasury bonds, mortgage bundles, and other instruments. Even as consumers bask in the glow of China Priced goods and services, freely tossing wads of disposable income to the overseas bogey-man ($170 billion in 2004, according to page 254), they become further obligated to the Chinese as the portfolio of American debt instruments swells. Not only that, but institutional investors representing the pensions of American workers invest heavily in companies that in turn invest billions in China (page 258).
China has its currency, the yuan, pegged to the American dollar. When the dollar rises, so does the yuan; when the dollar falls, the yuan floats down with it. While this used to be good news (as when China alone kept a stable currency as other Asian nations experienced economic crises), today this means that China is a “global bargain bin,” where it might cost a million dollars to build a factory that would cost $1.4 million elsewhere (page 261). Instead of being a level playing field, the yuan’s dollar-peg invites criticism from those who allege China has manufactured an artificial advantage for themselves in addition to cheap DVD players and bootleg movies to play in them.
One takeaway from Fishman’s book is to beware an angry China. China buys so much American debt that one could conceive of ways in which China can pull the ever-strengthening strings of the American economy. China stockpiles enough dollars that it could flood the global currency markets if it decided on a spending spree; China pushes down interest rates through its debt investments, and through the China Price China takes American’s money both coming and going. One of these days China might drop the tab off on the table, and we’ll wonder if all the gluttony was worth it.
It remains to be seen whether China’s pretensions to capitalism are sustainable. Certainly, the nation seems to operate its own reality-distortion field in which one can decide, seemingly on a whim, to scrub the skies of pollution in advance of the Olympic games through an ambitious program of cloud-seeding. Similarly, the entire engine driving China’s economy seems powered not just by coal and oil, but by sheer force of will. If we let that will grow too strong, China might end up drinking our milkshake after all.
Want to read
January 12, 2009I bought and skimmed/read this book during the Olympic boycott conversation, and one thing I found interesting is that the term 'Human Rights' is not in the index. Which would indicate it's not a concept that the author included in this book. Skimming on my own, I did find it mentioned - but only as a transparent strategy that certain entities use to try and stem US job loss - nothing more. Which was interesting at that point in time (and now).
In general, I found it the way others have - superficial, simplistic, stereotypical.. but also with some nuggets of truth. I also felt that one true thing was that the amount of US debt that China holds is big and meaningful. I felt that the author's easy dismissal of India's rise to prominence was facile and insufficiently supported.
Overall, another interesting snippet to include within a set of books on these subjects - relying on this one alone would be a mistake.
In general, I found it the way others have - superficial, simplistic, stereotypical.. but also with some nuggets of truth. I also felt that one true thing was that the amount of US debt that China holds is big and meaningful. I felt that the author's easy dismissal of India's rise to prominence was facile and insufficiently supported.
Overall, another interesting snippet to include within a set of books on these subjects - relying on this one alone would be a mistake.
June 17, 2021
Even though the book is quite outdated, it provides lots of insights on the raise of China as the biggest world power. I liked the fact the author had done a thorough investigation of different aspect of political and economical influence of the country. However, some of his ideas might have been lost in the too-academic language used in the narrative. Moreover, one should perceive the book as a comparative essay on the competition between the US and China as it provides very little information on the impact China had on other countries. Even though there are mentions of South East Asia, Europe and specific countries, they accompany the story to showcase how much the US is affected by China's collaboration with other markets. Giving the author's country of origin, it is expected; though in my opinion, it limits the practical implications of the book. Nevertheless, I have found the work quite educative and engaging.
November 15, 2022
Very informative up to 2005 when published. pre Xi Jinping which changed China's path somewhat.
October 29, 2014
In brief, extremely poor workforce + no respect for intellectual property + government encouragement = China's success. That much I knew, but never in as much detail as I read in this book. What I found most interesting is what I gathered from the text--that China's boom is not sustainable in the long-term. The unique Chinese business term "black heart" refers to more than *just* making counterfeit baby formula filled with cornstarch.
For those who care but won't read the book...or might...whatever...China's brainiest college grads are most interested in producing phone apps not because "apps are the future" or some such nonsense, but because they're the only way that inventors/designers get paid. That is, no one is (yet) downloading pirated apps off the internet. In China, over 90% of all software (or designer labels, or equipment, or manufacturing designs) is pirated. The same Chinese company that orders your exclusive software for its offices will turn around and pirate it from you. (Imagine our local cable company paying you to design 100 CD-roms' worth of their business operating software, then burning a thousand extra copies for additional office computers). The smartest Chinese engineers and designers know their countrymen will rip them off, so they design apps that must be purchased through cell phone companies, which are more trustworthy.
That is, China's best and brightest won't reinvent Chinese design and manufacturing until the Chinese government tightens its intellectual property laws (and their enforcement). And were these tightened and enforced, the cost of manufacturing in China would skyrocket. Never mind manufacturing's reliance on an unhappy workforce working for virtually nothing. The easy conclusion is that China is trapped in a Catch-22: protect intellectual property and increase innovation, or continue as-is, which doesn't motivate Chinese smarties to innovate.
So, the bad news is that the Chinese government may easily tumble within the next 10-20 years, causing untold troubles to its citizens and people around the world (and that's if they're still alive after the environmental degradation is tallied up). The good news is that the Chinese aren't quite as responsible for destroying my nation's economy as I thought they were. Up until recently, and still (mostly), they've simply knocked other exporters out of business. That is, something like the bulk of U.S. shoe production was outsourced to foreign companies years ago. The Chinese didn't put our shoe companies out of business; they put the Mexican, etc., companies who put us out of business out of business (read that carefully; it makes total sense in my head).
On a personal level, my biggest beef with the Chinese is that they're responsible for the low interest rates I earn on my savings. They invest their U.S. export earnings in our government securities and banks, which cuts down competition for this money, which means low interest rates. Low interest rates are great if you're spending your money on a house or starting a business, but suck if you're simply trying to save.
End rant. Global economics! So complicated. I should stick to reading the juvenile fiction I skipped over as a kid.
For those who care but won't read the book...or might...whatever...China's brainiest college grads are most interested in producing phone apps not because "apps are the future" or some such nonsense, but because they're the only way that inventors/designers get paid. That is, no one is (yet) downloading pirated apps off the internet. In China, over 90% of all software (or designer labels, or equipment, or manufacturing designs) is pirated. The same Chinese company that orders your exclusive software for its offices will turn around and pirate it from you. (Imagine our local cable company paying you to design 100 CD-roms' worth of their business operating software, then burning a thousand extra copies for additional office computers). The smartest Chinese engineers and designers know their countrymen will rip them off, so they design apps that must be purchased through cell phone companies, which are more trustworthy.
That is, China's best and brightest won't reinvent Chinese design and manufacturing until the Chinese government tightens its intellectual property laws (and their enforcement). And were these tightened and enforced, the cost of manufacturing in China would skyrocket. Never mind manufacturing's reliance on an unhappy workforce working for virtually nothing. The easy conclusion is that China is trapped in a Catch-22: protect intellectual property and increase innovation, or continue as-is, which doesn't motivate Chinese smarties to innovate.
So, the bad news is that the Chinese government may easily tumble within the next 10-20 years, causing untold troubles to its citizens and people around the world (and that's if they're still alive after the environmental degradation is tallied up). The good news is that the Chinese aren't quite as responsible for destroying my nation's economy as I thought they were. Up until recently, and still (mostly), they've simply knocked other exporters out of business. That is, something like the bulk of U.S. shoe production was outsourced to foreign companies years ago. The Chinese didn't put our shoe companies out of business; they put the Mexican, etc., companies who put us out of business out of business (read that carefully; it makes total sense in my head).
On a personal level, my biggest beef with the Chinese is that they're responsible for the low interest rates I earn on my savings. They invest their U.S. export earnings in our government securities and banks, which cuts down competition for this money, which means low interest rates. Low interest rates are great if you're spending your money on a house or starting a business, but suck if you're simply trying to save.
End rant. Global economics! So complicated. I should stick to reading the juvenile fiction I skipped over as a kid.
April 10, 2016
This book can provide the answers to many questions for western business people looking to do business in today's China. It is a must read for any businessperson. It is the businessperson's equivalent to Lonely Planet: China, the traveler's guide of guides. Ted Fishman, is a former Chicago Mercantile Exchange firm owner, and has been a quest speaker on several business radio programs in the US, most notably "Marketplace's Special Report From China". It was from this program that I first learned of China INC.
This book uses vibrant, yet simple business instances of how China's economy operates, and how it developed to where it is today. With each chapter and story, I could recall a similar experience that has happened to me. As you read through this book, do you think you would be able to recognize your own country's business methods?
China INC starts off by explaining how China's economy has affected everyone around the world and in what ways. From the farmers in Zhejiang, to back streets of Shanghai, to the politicians in Beijing, China INC illustrates how China has become the lead actor on the world's stage of business. You'll find out who did the actual leading and who followed. It reveals the underlying policies that shifted China to its current global power. As you read through this book, will you be able to recognize these events? Do they still exist in today's China?
The book explains how the old traditions of guanxi still operate in today's complicated worldwide business field. Want to have a TV show to grow your school, then take the TV station director to lunch, and he'll give you all the program time you want as long as he gets a cut from your advertising revenue. Wonder how legal that Chinese contract is, how connected is the lawyer that wrote it for you, does he have the important contacts to fix any problem that may arise?
China INC also informs the reader how the big multi-nationals have changed their business strategies to get the inside track on doing business in China, and with China. Why do they sacrifice their IPR to manufacture in China? How they tolerate piracy for brand awareness and recognition, to grow market share. If China is the world's seller, then whom does China buy from? Which countries and industry sectors are growing thanks to China's spending? All these questions and then some are answered through stimulating business stories in this enlightening book.
This book uses vibrant, yet simple business instances of how China's economy operates, and how it developed to where it is today. With each chapter and story, I could recall a similar experience that has happened to me. As you read through this book, do you think you would be able to recognize your own country's business methods?
China INC starts off by explaining how China's economy has affected everyone around the world and in what ways. From the farmers in Zhejiang, to back streets of Shanghai, to the politicians in Beijing, China INC illustrates how China has become the lead actor on the world's stage of business. You'll find out who did the actual leading and who followed. It reveals the underlying policies that shifted China to its current global power. As you read through this book, will you be able to recognize these events? Do they still exist in today's China?
The book explains how the old traditions of guanxi still operate in today's complicated worldwide business field. Want to have a TV show to grow your school, then take the TV station director to lunch, and he'll give you all the program time you want as long as he gets a cut from your advertising revenue. Wonder how legal that Chinese contract is, how connected is the lawyer that wrote it for you, does he have the important contacts to fix any problem that may arise?
China INC also informs the reader how the big multi-nationals have changed their business strategies to get the inside track on doing business in China, and with China. Why do they sacrifice their IPR to manufacture in China? How they tolerate piracy for brand awareness and recognition, to grow market share. If China is the world's seller, then whom does China buy from? Which countries and industry sectors are growing thanks to China's spending? All these questions and then some are answered through stimulating business stories in this enlightening book.
July 26, 2014
China has the world's most rapidly changing large economy, Fishman details how hundreds of millions of peasants have migrated from rural to urban areas to find manufacturing jobs, providing an unlimited, low-wage workforce to power China's economy. "No country has ever before made a better run at climbing every step of economic development all at once," he writes, in China, Inc. China invites large corporations to manufacture their products in their country—simply put, American companies can't compete with wages as low as 25 cents an hour and lack of regulation and oversight, so are forced to move their operations to China or completely change the focus of their business. Once the companies are in China, within a few months are the Chinese are copying and competing against the same companies they attracted.
China is currently the largest maker of toys, clothing, and consumer electronics, and is swiftly moving up the ladder in car production, computer manufacturing, biotechnology, aerospace, telecommunications, and other sectors thanks to low-cost, high-tech factories. China is also where the world is investing. In 2004, for instance, the city of Shanghai alone attracted over $12 billion in direct foreign investment, roughly the same amount as all of Indonesia and Mexico received. In tracing China's ascendancy over the past 30 years (with annual growth of an astonishing 9.5 percent), Fishman presents a flood of facts, figures, forecasts, and anecdotes and examines the implications of this unprecedented growth for China, the U.S., and the rest of the world. A great read and again exposes some of the themes brought brilliantly by Fareed Zakaria’s The Post-American World.
China is currently the largest maker of toys, clothing, and consumer electronics, and is swiftly moving up the ladder in car production, computer manufacturing, biotechnology, aerospace, telecommunications, and other sectors thanks to low-cost, high-tech factories. China is also where the world is investing. In 2004, for instance, the city of Shanghai alone attracted over $12 billion in direct foreign investment, roughly the same amount as all of Indonesia and Mexico received. In tracing China's ascendancy over the past 30 years (with annual growth of an astonishing 9.5 percent), Fishman presents a flood of facts, figures, forecasts, and anecdotes and examines the implications of this unprecedented growth for China, the U.S., and the rest of the world. A great read and again exposes some of the themes brought brilliantly by Fareed Zakaria’s The Post-American World.
June 10, 2007
This book. Initially, I was a little skeptical of this book. China is a hot topic lately and it seemed this book was published to make money off that sensationalism. But, in the beginning, I was surprised, it offered me an accurate introductory explanation to a lot of what I encountered in China. However, the goodness stopped there. Fishman writes from a US perspective and accuses China of havingcreating an unfair global economic advantage (which is absurd). Ultimately, I think I just chose the wrong book. The book accomplishes analyzing the rise of china as an economic threat to the west (whether or not it is, is up for debate), but it offers little explanation of what is going on within china. The author ignores the Chinese people and dissects the country from the point of view of an outsider whose way of living might one day be in jeopardy.
Read
March 4, 2015The style of this book was rather dry, and I didn't catch all of the author's points about how China's economic rise influences the global worlds of finance, manufacturing, and the economy. However, I appreciated that he didn't totally bash China while he was giving his various analyses. I was also particularly interested in how he described China's attitude toward intellectual property rights. I'm now looking forward to reading "Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America" because this book talks about how America in the 18th and 19th centuries did essentially the same thing that America and other Western countries are accusing China of now.
"China, Inc." is Book No. 5 for 2015!
"China, Inc." is Book No. 5 for 2015!
March 12, 2015
It would have been better had I read this when I first bought it ten years ago, at a Kellogg MBA alumni event at which the author spoke (and autographed my copy). I would have given it at least one more star had I rated it then, but books such as this age quickly and a lot of the material seems dated. Still it gives very good insights into how China got started with economic liberalization and the growth of a capitalist economy there. The book is very well written and is open-eyed about both the pluses and minuses of 21st Century China.
July 12, 2014
outdated
October 21, 2015
من شدة ان ترجمة الكتاب سيئه لم استطع تقييم الكتاب بدقه. لأَنِّي لم افهم معظم المواضيع
November 10, 2015
The miracle of the Chinese Economy, an iron handed government with a controlled population of indentured servants. A government that sanctions stealing openly, and we allow it. Yea Us.
December 29, 2019
This book was released c. 2004 highlighting the rise of China (for a largely American/ Western) audience. The author has done a good job highlighting the rise of industrialization in China (with some primary research stories, mostly from large cities of China, of immigrants, shopkeepers, and industrial labor/ factory owners). It is great for the first read on China but could appear stereotypical if you have spent time in China, albeit recently. The author gets tons of examples to bring out popular themes - the extremely poor/low-cost labor, the general lack of respect for intellectual property rights, and the various forms of support encouragement from the government for the industry. The government support, while on the surface can appear antithetic to a Communist regime, is a big reason why China has been able to industrialize so rapidly. The end of the book talks about the "Chinese - American Economy" and the "Chinese Century" - where the author predicted the right trend of evolution of the alternative power center but has given much less importance to the European Union or other emerging economies. Overall, a good read about China and will help open up a lot of perspectives on how China reached where it is today, and what can we expect in the future.
August 29, 2025
This is a very serviceable primer on China, and its economic strength. Ted Fishman walks us through China's burgeoning economy and its origins. He presents the subject through anecdotes and interviews but also synthesizing numerous books and research articles. From "knowledge work" to manufacturing, China and its population are truly poised to become the next super economic power, if they aren't already (this book was written in 2005).
I wish I were an economist to properly understand his chapter on the tangled relationships between the United States and Chinese economy. Though the details of that chapter washed over me, Fishman makes it clear in this chapter and throughout his book that China is not content to be merely a "copy-cat" nation. The United States has to come to terms with how to handle their upcoming dominance.
I wish I were an economist to properly understand his chapter on the tangled relationships between the United States and Chinese economy. Though the details of that chapter washed over me, Fishman makes it clear in this chapter and throughout his book that China is not content to be merely a "copy-cat" nation. The United States has to come to terms with how to handle their upcoming dominance.
August 22, 2017
Geçtiğimiz yıl Pekin'de düzenlenen G20 zirvesi karşılamaları sırasında herkes gibi benim de dikkatimi Barack Obama'nın karşılanma şekli çekmişti. Tüm devlet başkanlarına kırmızı halı ile üst düzey karşılama uygulayan Çin hükümeti Air Force One Pekin'e indiğinde uçağa merdiven bile vermemişti. ABD başkanı uçağın kendi merdiveni ile arka bölümden havaalanına inmiş ve sıradan bir bürokrat tarafından karşılanmıştı. Buna rağmen kendisini dünyanın jandarması sanan ABD hiçbir tepki verememişti.
İşte o verilemeyen tepkinin tüm yanıtları bu kitapta. Çin'in know how transferi, taklit ürün ve ucuz iş gücü ile dünya ekonomisinde nasıl bir büyük güç haline geldiği görülüyor. Dünya ekonomisinin yarınını iyi anlayabilmek için mutlaka okunmalı!
İşte o verilemeyen tepkinin tüm yanıtları bu kitapta. Çin'in know how transferi, taklit ürün ve ucuz iş gücü ile dünya ekonomisinde nasıl bir büyük güç haline geldiği görülüyor. Dünya ekonomisinin yarınını iyi anlayabilmek için mutlaka okunmalı!
August 18, 2024
I’m sad this book was so popular when I was too young to appreciate it because it was so well written and organized. I loved the parts about how people migrated from poor farming communities to cities and how capitalism took root in a communist government. It helped make sense of such a conflicted structure we have today. Obviously this book is very outdated and couldn’t touch on the collapse of the America auto industry, the rise of Apple and Amazon, and the pandemic, but would looove a follow up! The explanation of the devalued currency and how the Chinese buy up so much American debt was fascinating. I’d read a whole book on that chapter! Couldn’t put it down and frequently found myself staying up past my bedtime turning pages!
January 7, 2023
A plethora of facts impossible to absorb - the proverbial "trying to drink from a firehose". It was hard to find any real theme in this book, just a massive reporting of the current state of China's economy (as of 2005/2006). The last chapter endeavors to make a point, or rather a policy proposal statement. This is not light reading, it is 300 pages of hardcore business news.
August 4, 2020
This is a scary study of how China is growing rapidly and will soon be taking more than our manufacturing work. That have nearly unlimited labor and their population makes them a huge force in the world.
October 31, 2020
Interesting to read this edition, which was updated in 2006. Now 14 years, much of what the author foretold has become reality and the lingering questions of whether the Chinese growth engine could falter remain.
August 24, 2019
After I was done with reading this wonderful book I now own Kweichow Moutai I.N.C
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 7, 2019
It is an interesting book to understand how the economic rise of China has taken place today, where I could define that modern slavery has been its "greatest advantage" to produce at a very low cost.
April 7, 2020
it is very important
April 17, 2020
1 ترجمة سيئة
2 حشو وتكرار
3 في كثير من صفحاته، يناسب ان يكون رواية لكثرة التفاصيل البصرية التي يُسهب في شرحها
2 حشو وتكرار
3 في كثير من صفحاته، يناسب ان يكون رواية لكثرة التفاصيل البصرية التي يُسهب في شرحها
December 30, 2021
fascinating recap on how the chinese economy transformed overtime to reach hypergrowth in 21st century. featured stories from different regions and families, making it less of a dry/ tough reach.
May 17, 2023
Compelling
August 26, 2018
قرأت هذا الكتاب قبل عدة شهور وتوقفت في منتصفه، جميل الكتاب ويحكي عن النمو الكبير الذي حاصل الصين،
الكتاب جميل ويذكر ارقام كثيرة واحصائيات مهمة لكن مشكلة هذه الارقام انها قديمة وهذا السبب الرئيسي للتوقف عن قراءة الكتاب ، فقد كُتب الكتاب سنة 2009 ونحن الان في 2018 مايقارب 10 سنوات وهذه برأيي فترة كبيرة كانت قبل ظهور الهواتف الذكية.. فقد اصبحت الصين الان تنافس في سوق الهواتف الذكية واصبحت الان رائدة في مجال علم الجينيوم..
الكتاب جميل ويذكر ارقام كثيرة واحصائيات مهمة لكن مشكلة هذه الارقام انها قديمة وهذا السبب الرئيسي للتوقف عن قراءة الكتاب ، فقد كُتب الكتاب سنة 2009 ونحن الان في 2018 مايقارب 10 سنوات وهذه برأيي فترة كبيرة كانت قبل ظهور الهواتف الذكية.. فقد اصبحت الصين الان تنافس في سوق الهواتف الذكية واصبحت الان رائدة في مجال علم الجينيوم..
December 29, 2016
This book delivers just about what you would expect from it, mostly impressive statistics, data, and trends that highlight the incredible productivity, growth, and potential of China. The market-oriented China that has risen over the past 30 years will change the world, both in predictable and unpredictable ways. The sheer size of China and its immense population of working adults is mind-boggling, and the impact it will have on our lives is seemingly unavoidable. In some ways, a richer and more consumptive China should make the world a better place, but the huge majority of the information presented in this book evokes feelings of unease and worry. The loss of manufacturing jobs to China, our growing trade deficit, and the huge political clout of the next great economic powerhouse are all reasons for serious concern. Parts of this book are down-right scary. And all of it is impressive. One thing for sure, this book made me want to visit China and see this incredible growth for myself!
That being said, a lot of this book is repetitive feeling, telling of the same trends over and over, hammering on the same general principles time after time. And a significant amount of the material here is taken from personal interviews with Chinese shop owners or factory workers, or American business men making from, or losing money to, China. These stories are meant to give a personal face to the numbers and statistics presented here, but end up taking more space than needed, probably making this already-long book unnecessarily longer. Additionally, as this was published in January, 2005, the numbers and statistics are obviously dated, although the trends it highlights apparently continue to hold true. Overall, this book presents a hugely-important topic in an easy-to-read and understandable manner. Recommended.
That being said, a lot of this book is repetitive feeling, telling of the same trends over and over, hammering on the same general principles time after time. And a significant amount of the material here is taken from personal interviews with Chinese shop owners or factory workers, or American business men making from, or losing money to, China. These stories are meant to give a personal face to the numbers and statistics presented here, but end up taking more space than needed, probably making this already-long book unnecessarily longer. Additionally, as this was published in January, 2005, the numbers and statistics are obviously dated, although the trends it highlights apparently continue to hold true. Overall, this book presents a hugely-important topic in an easy-to-read and understandable manner. Recommended.
August 30, 2016
This book was written 12 years ago. I would love to have a sequel because of the down turn of the world economy. However, the book is excellent and somewhat prophetic. He ends the book with some advice for our country. Of course, "our country" is a vague term. Our government leaders? American citizens? Well, the fact is neither followed his suggestions because our country still is in debt to China and Americans still live beyond their means. I had to smile when I read about how Chinese have a tendency to be very frugal and save money rather than spend. Yes, this is true. The story of the rebirth of China since the 1980s is historic. You have to admire how some of the villagers jumped on the capitalist bandwagon. Yes, there are human rights abuses, unfavor labor practices and POLLUTION yet the economic growth goes on. I admit a fascination with what happened in Shenzhen. I visited there in 2014. We took the mass rapid transit to the furthest station (took 45 minutes) and marveled at the apartment blocks and factories. I read Factory Girls a few years ago and was quite touched by the plight of the factory workers. I marvel at the Chinese innovation, endurance. The corruption, stealing of intellectual property is a dark mark on the economic growth. But without clear values, I don't know if this will ever change.
December 28, 2010
This was an engaging audiobook that coincidentally had the same narrator as my previous audiobook selection (Alan Sklar). Unlike some of the previous books on China I've read or listened to, this one limited itself mainly to business and economic ramifications of China's rise. Interestingly, since it is about 5 years old, the main themes seemed a bit out of step with the latest trends in "China watching" - for example, much was made in this book of the process known as "offshoring," or the transfer of higher-paying jobs, skilled or unskilled, to lower-wage equivalents in China. Lou Dobbs, the shrill former CNN commentator who made a name for himself largely on criticizing U.S. companies who offshore jobs, is mentioned more than once in the book (conversely, I haven't heard much about Dobbs lately, though admittedly I rarely watch television). It seems to me that the China conversations of today are more about other types of Chinese power, for instance, military power, or rumblings thereof (such as in the South or East China Seas, where China aims to intimidate neighbors out of competing claims to land, fisheries, or hydrocarbons). Nonetheless, it's an informative book and the pace is good - I never felt like the book bogged down. Worth a read if you come across a copy.
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