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Thread: Made in China

  1. #16
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    No more Made in China?

    I do think this will shift, but it's a long time until 'Made in China' disappears. The massive population makes for a massive number of poor, which still means a massive amount of cheap labor.

    Why the ‘Made in China’ tag may soon cease to exist
    MARCH 3, 2017 5:59PM


    How much longer will ‘Made In China’ last?

    news.com.au

    THAT little “Made in China” tag can be found on much of what we own — clothes, toys, shoes, electronics, food products, kitchenware, jewellery.
    For decades, the country has been seen as the “factory” of the world, with its massive supply of inexpensive manufacturing labour.
    But as the country’s economy expands at breakneck speed, the omnipresent stamp may soon become a thing of the past.
    Chinese factory workers are now getting paid more than ever. According to market research firm Euromonitor, the average hourly wages hit $3.60 last year. This may not sound like much, but it represents a 64 per cent growth from 2011.
    For comparison’s sake, that’s more than five times the hourly manufacturing wage in India, and puts China on par with countries like South Africa and Portugal.
    It means President Donald Trump’s repeated threat to go after China for its cheap exports to boost US manufacturing may be a bit outdated.


    Chinese factory workers are getting paid more than ever.Source:AFP

    An increase in wages means an increase in costs for companies who trade with the rising superpower, which means China could start losing their jobs to other developing countries like Sri Lanka, where hourly factory wages are around 50 cents.
    As we speak, southeast Asian countries like Cambodia and Myanmar are already moving towards displacing China’s role as the go-to location for cheap product building.
    Bloomberg reports countries like Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos will eventually displace China’s title as the “world’s factory” within 10 to 15 years.
    But according to Vox, the Chinese Communist Party is unlikely to intervene, as lowering the wages to improve competition would risk provoking social unrest.
    It comes as companies are also investing in robots in efforts to automate as much as possible to offset labour costs, according to Jefferies analysts Sean Darby and Kenneth Chan.
    China’s industrial robotics market became the world’s largest in 2013, and is continuing to grow.
    Whether the country can and will rise to “superpower status” as expected is yet to be seen.
    Gene Ching
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  2. #17
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    Who's fault?

    Nice of her to have it translated thrice...

    'I work 14 hours a day': Woman finds a note from Chinese 'prisoner' begging for help inside her Walmart purse

    A woman believes she found a note from a Chinese prisoner in a new purse
    She purchased the purse at a Walmart store in Sierra Vista, Arizona
    It says the author is a Chinese prisoner forced to work under abusive conditions
    The woman who found the letter said she had it translated three separate times

    By Abigail Miller For Dailymail.com
    PUBLISHED: 02:03 EDT, 1 May 2017 | UPDATED: 02:03 EDT, 1 May 2017

    An Arizona woman says she believes that she found a note from a Chinese prisoner pleading for help in a purse she bought at Walmart.

    The woman said she bought the purse at the superstore in Sierra Vista, Arizona, and later found the note, written completely in Chinese, reported KPTV.

    She had the note translated three times to be certain that the message was correct.

    An Arizona woman says she believes that she found a note from a Chinese prisoner pleading for help in a purse she bought at Walmart

    The note's author writes that he or she is a prisoner in China being forced to work about 14 hours a day with little food or medical attention.

    The alleged prisoner pleads for help from whoever reads the note, but the woman who found it said she does not have the means personally to help the prisoner, so she hopes something comes out of sharing it.

    Similar letters to this one have been traced back to stores that outsource a lot of their labor, such as K-Mart, in the past.
    Gene Ching
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  3. #18
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    Made in the U.S.A.

    'Made in China' could soon be made in the US
    Eunice Yoon | @eyoonCNBC
    Wednesday, 31 May 2017 | 12:21 AM ET
    CNBC.com

    It's Chinese-made in America.

    Yes, you read that right. Contrary to widespread belief, China isn't the cheap place to manufacture that it once was, and rising costs have been forcing manufacturers to explore new countries to make their goods.

    The U.S. may not be top of mind for all industries, but some manufacturers are taking a second look at the country — and many of them are Chinese. Throw in the possibility of lower corporate taxes under President Donald Trump, and more will likely come looking.

    "The reason we want to invest in the U.S. isn't only because the Trump administration is encouraging it," Xiao Wunan, deputy chairman of Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation, who takes Chinese business executives to the U.S. on investment tours, told CNBC. "The U.S. has natural advantages for [Chinese] investment."

    Why go to the U.S.?

    The cost advantage

    John Ling, president of the Council of American States in China, makes a living finding prospective investment locations in the U.S. for Chinese companies.

    "In every project I help to land in the U.S., if I cannot present evidence that they can lower their costs, my chance of doing [the deal] in the U.S. is almost zero," he told CNBC. "Cost is driving this."

    American workers earn a lot of money compared to their counterparts in China, but the U.S. can still come out on top when costs are taken as a whole.

    For Hangzhou-based textile manufacturer Keer Group, American workers were paid on average twice as much as workers in China, according to the firm's president, Zhu Shanqing. In aggregate, however, producing in the America is significantly less compared to China.

    "In the U.S., land, electricity and cotton are all much cheaper," Zhu said. "My production cost per ton of textiles is 25 percent lower [there]."

    In addition, he said, wages for him in China have been increasing 30 percent each year for much of the past decade. He has pledged $220 million to build and expand a facility in South Carolina and plans to eventually move the entire business to the U.S. where he plans to employ more than 500 people by the end of the year.

    Add in the possibility of a lower corporate tax to as little as 15 percent, as proposed by Trump, and the U.S. becomes a no-brainer for many manufacturers Zhu said.

    "If Trump cuts the corporate tax even by 5 percent, companies that left America a few years ago, will be back," he said.

    The stable business environment

    Compared to many other countries, especially in the emerging world, China has been a stalwart of stability for manufacturers for decades. However, the U.S. does have some selling points that Chinese companies don't really like to talk about on record: better air, safer food, straightforward access to funding and a government that doesn't intervene.

    U.S. state politicians will pitch to a foreign company to bring in the jobs, but once they've invested, it's said the American officials leave them alone. Once a company is in the U.S., Chinese or not, it is treated like any other company.

    The proximity to the U.S. consumer

    Chinese consumers are the spenders of the future, but Americans are the buyers of today. As Chinese companies grow in stature and expand their footprint overseas, many of them see the U.S. market as the holy grail.

    Guangzhou-based GAC Motor, which is eyeing the U.S. market, says partnering with a stateside automaker or even building its own American plant one day is in the cards.

    "If we can succeed in the U.S. market, we can succeed anywhere in the world," President Yu Jun told CNBC, adding that having facilities in the U.S. makes a manufacturer more nimble to respond to a customer's needs.

    "No matter if it's a good economy or a bad economy, the U.S. is still the number one market for any company in the world," Ling explained. "So certainly, naturally you want to be closer to where your customers are."


    Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    Who's going, who's not?

    Capital-intensive industries: Definitely.

    All sorts of companies are interested in setting up shop in the U.S., according to Ling, but there is an emerging trend.

    The most suited, he said, are capital-intensive industries such as textiles, chemicals, paper and packaging and auto parts. Chinese billionaire Cao Dewang, whose company Fuyao Glass makes window shields for cars, recently invested hundreds of millions of dollars to revive a plant in Ohio.

    "I don't believe we have scratched the surface yet," Ling said.

    Labor-intensive industries: No thanks.

    Labor-intensive industries such as apparel are not as keen.

    China-based Austrian garment manufacturer KTC, which sells sports clothing mainly to Europe and the U.S., says its industry still depends heavily on labor. American workers are still more expensive than Chinese and the other factors wouldn't bring costs down enough to make it worthwhile for a move, says Managing Director Gerhard Flatz.

    Additionally, American workers don't have the skills right now that have been developed in China over years, he told CNBC.

    Ling said some high-labor businesses, though, have been able to make the transition lowering costs since, unlike in China, manufacturers in the U.S. don't have to worry about building dormitories and canteens or arranging transportation for their workers. "You only have a small canteen with a refrigerator and one or two microwaves," Ling said about the U.S.

    What's stopping them from coming?

    A skills shortage

    China's status as a manufacturing powerhouse means it has gained decades of experienced talent — which has been drained out of the U.S.

    "We face pressure in the U.S. because we cannot find skilled workers. Most of the people have not worked in this [field] before in their lives," Keer's Zhu said.

    KTC's Flatz sees a strong argument for investment in training and education for more China-based jobs to move to America. "Education—tradesman education," he said. "You have to make sure that you have enough educational power in the States, more or less, to bring up this entire industry."

    Visas

    To help train American workers, some manufacturers in China want to bring in their own managers and skilled workforce, but are having trouble obtaining the proper paperwork.

    "Our technicians cannot get visas to go to the U.S. We need [our staff], but many of them have been refused," Zhu said. "We are facing a new challenge."

    Supply Chain

    In addition to the lack of skilled workers, Flatz said entire supply chains would have to relocate to the U.S. for some industries.

    "None of us apparel manufacturers would move to the U.S. without having an ecosystem on site as we have in China," he said.

    The U.S. would have to do what the Chinese did decades ago, the China manufacturing veteran explained: set up economic zones, offer better infrastructure and financial incentives as a package.

    "Make it the same as the Chinese," he said. "And start on-shoring."

    —CNBC's Daisy Cherry contributed to this report.

    Eunice Yoon
    Beijing Bureau Chief, CNBC
    We'll know this has happened for sure when the Trumps start manufacturing their clothes lines in America.
    Gene Ching
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  4. #19
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    Made in the USA.... not

    The Fourth of July, made in China
    How Chinese manufacturers profit off fireworks, grills, and flag sales.
    Updated by Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna@ruairiakruairi@vox.com Jul 3, 2017, 1:30pm EDT





    The Fourth of July is an economic boom of a holiday — for China.

    Ever since the first commemoration of Independence Day, Americans have celebrated with bombs bursting in air. But what started in 1777 with the firing of 13 rockets into the sky in Philadelphia has evolved into a tradition celebrated across the continent with grander and more expensive spectacles. No one benefits more from that than Chinese manufacturers.

    The American Pyrotechnics Association reported in 2013 that 93 percent of fireworks used in the United States are made in China. It’s not surprising, then, that the US runs a substantial trade deficit with China with regards to fireworks. A Census Bureau report published on Friday suggests Americans imported more than $300 million worth of fireworks last year (96 percent of which came from China), while exports totaled only about $10 million.

    Chinese companies clean up on your cookout, too. The Fourth of July is the most popular day of the year for Americans to cook outdoors, and a 2015 Hearth, Patio, and Barbecue Association survey showed that there’s still high consumer interest in purchasing new outdoor grills each year. The LA Times estimated in 2016 that the outdoor grill industry consistently rakes in more than a billion dollars in sales each year in the United States. But last year, IBISWorld reported that imports now make up the majority of outdoor grill sales in the United States, and Consumer Reports suggests that most are, in fact, made in China. Even Weber-Stephen, one of the oldest American grill companies, has moved production for a 2017 model of one of its popular lines of outdoor grills to China.

    Even new American flags — in a small way — benefit Chinese manufacturers. April, May, and June are the busiest months for flag sales, which makes sense since Memorial Day and Independence Day are the most popular times to fly the Stars and Stripes. But while today the United States is a net exporter of the flag (a positive change from three years ago), America still imports $5.4 million worth of its own banner, with the vast majority of these imported flags ($5.3 million) coming from China.

    While “Made in the USA” makes for a popular slogan, American consumers have repeatedly proven that what matters most is getting a good price. That often means buying from China. Even Donald Trump, who preached “Buy American” on the campaign trail, in his inauguration speech, in his February address to Congress, and in a recent, mostly symbolic executive order, found it difficult to buy all American for his first White House congressional picnic a couple of weeks ago.

    Food for that picnic was grilled over imported coals — not from China, but from Mexico.


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    The 4th of July Made in China
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  5. #20
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    It's really sadly ironic (and a bit funny) that American companies that sell U.S. flags have been contracting to have them made in China for years.

    On another note, on bladeforums, someone started a thread to see how many people who, out of patriotism, will strictly carry U.S.-made knives for the month of July. Considering that (for only one example) most if not all of the titanium in the U.S. comes from Russia, then all of the folders famously 'made in the USA' that utilize titanium in their handles, liners/liner locks/frame locks and pocket clips are already not 100% American materials. Just like I've heard that Leatherman's USA-made tools have parts from China, as well as parts from and/or some assembly done in Mexico. The Apple iPad I'm typing this on (and almost certainly whatever device Trump tweets on) is made in China.

    Those who want to buy/use strictly 'Murican-made seem to have trouble realizing that it's a global economy.
    Last edited by Jimbo; 07-05-2017 at 08:22 AM.

  6. #21
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    Yiwu International Trade City

    Step inside the ‘Made in China’ capital of the world, where you can find everything from pacifiers to Christmas ornaments
    Talia Lakritz, INSIDER


    Courtesy Raffaele Petralla

    The INSIDER Summary:
    Yiwu International Trade City in Yiwu, China, is known as "Commodity City."
    It's the world's largest wholesale market.
    Photographer Raffaele Petralla spent a month documenting the items sold there and the people who sell them.

    If you've ever bought Christmas decorations or children's toys, chances are they came from Yiwu, China.

    Yiwu International Trade City, known as "Commodity City," is home to the world's largest wholesale market — 46 million square feet, to be exact, with over 62,000 booths inside. About 65-70% of these products are exported to over 215 countries and regions.

    When photographer Raffaele Petralla read about Commodity City in "Confessions of an Eco-Sinner" by Fred Pierce, he knew he wanted to document the streets lined with wholesale merchandise and the people who call the city home.

    Here are his incredible photos of the place where most "Made in China" products come from.

    Yiwu International Trade City is the world's largest wholesale market located in Yiwu, Zhejiang, China.


    Skyline of the new offices of the Trade Market Center in Yiwu City.Courtesy Raffaele Petralla

    Its five districts total 46 million square feet and house 62,000 booths.


    A wholesaler in the exhibition space inside the Market Trade Center.Courtesy Raffaele Petralla

    There are 400,000 different kids of products available to order at wholesale prices.


    Deep in the toy district.Courtesy Raffaele Petralla

    About 65-70% of what's sold there is exported.


    A wholesale dealer of head coverings for Muslim women.Courtesy Raffaele Petralla

    It's the origin of 60% of the world's Christmas decorations.


    Business owner Uan Xiao Fyn posing in one of his warehouses of Christmas ornaments.Courtesy Raffaele Petralla
    continued next post
    Gene Ching
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  7. #22
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    continued from previous post

    Photographer Raffaele Petralla spent a month documenting the items sold there and the people who sell them.


    An exhibition store of toy guns.Courtesy Raffaele Petralla

    He said most of the shopkeepers are relatives or friends of the owners of the companies that produce the goods.


    A stand displaying children's costumes in the toy district.Courtesy Raffaele Petralla

    They work long hours, from eight in the morning until 10 at night.


    A businessman in the toy district.Courtesy Raffaele Petralla

    Petralla was drawn to the seemingly infinite nature of the materials.


    A stand of kites.Courtesy Raffaele Petralla

    "I decided to focus on the multiplicity of products, on their seriality, the very bright colors of plastic products," he told INSIDER in an email.


    A wholesale stand of balls in the toy district.Courtesy Raffaele Petralla

    He was also surprised by how many shops sold fake plants.


    A stand selling fake plants.Courtesy Raffaele Petralla

    Of course, he made sure to bring back gifts for his grandchildren.


    A worker in a factory of inflatable plastic bats for children.Courtesy Raffaele Petralla

    The remote-controlled drones he bought "were nice, very cheap, and my grandchildren were very happy," he said. "The same product was a 'top product' for Christmas in Italy, and, in fact, I found the same toys in Italy at much higher prices."
    Yiwu looks awesome and terrifying.
    Gene Ching
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  8. #23
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    Made in North Korea

    North Korea factories humming with ‘Made in China’ clothes, traders say
    REUTERS,
    Added 14 August 2017


    North Korean workers make soccer shoes inside a temporary factory at a rural village on the edge of Dandong, Liaoning province, China, October 24, 2012. (Reuters)

    DANDONG, China – Chinese textile firms are increasingly using North Korean factories to take advantage of cheaper labour across the border, traders and businesses in the border city of Dandong told Reuters.
    The clothes made in North Korea are labelled “Made in China” and exported across the world, they said.
    Using North Korea to produce cheap clothes for sale around the globe shows that for every door that is closed by ever-tightening United Nations sanctions another one may open. The UN sanctions, introduced to punish North Korea for its missile and nuclear programmes, do not include any bans on textile exports.
    “We take orders from all over the world,” said one Korean-Chinese businessman in Dandong, the Chinese border city where the majority of North Korea trade passes through. Like many people Reuters interviewed for this story, he spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
    Dozens of clothing agents operate in Dandong, acting as go-betweens for Chinese clothing suppliers and buyers from the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Russia, the businessman said.
    “We will ask the Chinese suppliers who work with us if they plan on being open with their client – sometimes the final buyer won’t realise their clothes are being made in North Korea. It’s extremely sensitive,” he said.
    Textiles were North Korea’s second-biggest export after coal and other minerals in 2016, totalling $752 million, according to data from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency. Total exports from North Korea in 2016 rose 4.6 per cent to $2.82 billion.
    The latest UN sanctions, agreed earlier this month, have completely banned coal exports now.
    Its flourishing textiles industry shows how impoverished North Korea has adapted, with a limited embrace of market reforms, to sanctions since 2006 when it first tested a nuclear device. The industry also shows the extent to which North Korea relies on China as an economic lifeline, even as US President Donald Trump piles pressure on Beijing to do more to rein in its neighbour’s weapons programmes.
    Chinese exports to North Korea rose almost 30 per cent to $1.67 billion in the first half of the year, largely driven by textile materials and other traditional labour-intensive goods not included on the United Nations embargo list, Chinese customs spokesman Huang Songping told reporters.
    Chinese suppliers send fabrics and other raw materials required for manufacturing clothing to North Korean factories across the border where garments are assembled and exported. (Reuters)
    I wonder if Ivanka's clothing line traces back to N.K.
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  9. #24
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    More from Petralla's photo essay

    There's a 21 photo gallery on the Nat Geo site - most are redundant to the post above.

    Where Your ‘Made In China’ Trinkets Are Actually Made
    One city in China makes many of the low-cost products sold everywhere on earth.


    A shopkeeper sits at his stall which sells artificial plants at wholesale at the Market Trade Center
    PHOTOGRAPH BY RAFFAELE PETRALLA

    By Daniel Stone
    Photographs by Raffaele Petralla
    PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

    Made in China. The three ubiquitous words on inexpensive products all over the world. Toothpicks, tennis rackets, birthday candles, air fresheners. It all comes from China, but much of it—on the order of 60 percent of the worlds cheap consumable goods—comes from just one city: Yiwu.

    Yiwu is a small town by Chinese standards (pop. 1.2 million). But it’s globally significant to anyone who has ever bought socks, zippers, or a cheap last-minute Halloween costume.

    The city attracts business visitors from all over the world. Buyers come year-round to survey goods and make bulk orders that end up in hardware stores, souvenir shops, and big-box retailers on every continent. According to one estimate by a local trade group, more than 60 percent of all Christmas decorations, especially lights, originate in Yiwu.

    “Christmas starts in September there,” says Raffaele Petralla, a photographer who visited Yiwu to see the city of trinkets up close. “Christmas in China was once forbidden, during the years of communism, but now they see it as a big opportunity to sell things.”

    The Christmas market covers an area larger than a stadium. There’s also a market for toys, one specifically for zippers, and another for socks. The largest market, a hodge podge with a little of everything, stands on 640 acres and holds more than 58,000 individual stalls.

    Factories in Yiwu make many of the goods, but the spirit of production also extends to the suburbs and countryside, where people sew in their own homes and then sell the products to a market, where a person takes a cut to sell them to a buyer from, say, Korea, Japan, or the United States. By one estimate, more than 1,000 shipping containers leave Yiwu each day for foreign ports.

    Being around so many cheap products began to feel surreal for Petralla. Things were for sale everywhere, in stories, on the sidewalk, even in the streets. He passed stalls full of people selling the same objects, all produced nearby. Squirt guns, soccer balls, jewelry, stuffed animals, hair ties, phone cases. Everything for sale for pennies.

    Like many Chinese cities, Yiwu’s economy was once powered mainly by agriculture, producing things like chicken and sugar. Beginning in the 1950s, the city began to transition to production center for tradable goods. City officials invested in infrastructure and factories. Farm workers who might’ve moved away were put to work making things that could be sold cheaply on the international market.

    As Yiwu has built its 21st-century economy on quantity, it has in the past few decades begun to invest more in quality as well. In 2005, one maker of socks invested more than $100 million to make “the most advanced set of socks,” built more durably and with experimental materials. The same occurred for zippers, once cheap and disposable, after significant investment to make them sleeker and stronger.

    So much production and commerce results in a culture of competitiveness, where people try to outsell their neighbors.

    But what unites everyone seems to be pride in making things that are consumed everywhere on the planet. “From the poorest people to the richest, everyone across every social class in Yiwu seemed very proud of their production,” says Petralla. Belts, fishing rods, mittens, One city’s work, reproduced billions of times.

    Raffaele Petralla is a Rome-based photographer and is represented by Prospekt Photo.

    Daniel Stone is an editor for National Geographic magazine, where he covers science, technology, and agriculture. His book, The Food Explorer, on the life and adventures of food spy David Fairchild, will be published by Dutton (Penguin Random House) in 2018.
    Gene Ching
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  10. #25
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    A different take from Phillip Lim

    This thread has taken some twisty turns - there's a very topical piece to be written here just by compiling it. That's what I aspire to with all the OT threads.

    Phillip Lim talks about ‘Made in China’ stigma and being Chinese at Shanghai Fashion Week
    The Asian American designer feels a strong connection to China and wants to change the stereotypical view of manufacturing in the country as poor-quality
    PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 17 October, 2017, 12:46pm
    UPDATED : Tuesday, 17 October, 2017, 4:51pm



    Jing Zhang
    http://twitter.com/jingerzhanger
    jing.zhang@scmp.com

    “People are always asking me, ‘are you Thai, are you Chinese, are American, what are you?’,” says Asian American designer Phillip Lim from the stage at the Business of Fashion’s (BoF) first China Summit.
    He joins a gathering of industry heavyweights and insiders, led by BoF founder Imran Amed, at the one-day event exploring the China and global markets and unpacking China’s unexpected power moves in fashion.


    A look by 3.1 Phillip Lim at New York Fashion Week in September. Photo: EPA

    And while he identifies with all those things, Lim is today, at Shanghai Fashion Week, exploring his China connection. “I’m Chinese and I get asked a lot how does it feel to be Chinese but not to be from here”.
    “In Chinese culture, things are not spoken. Growing up in the West, you’re so used to being vocal,” he says, “but in Chinese families, at home it’s always about respect and things you won’t have to be told. A lot of values and nuances … there’s humility and hard work.”
    Lim is from an ethnically Chinese family, but was born in Thailand and grew up in the US, where his eponymous 3.1 Phillip Lim fashion label is based. His business partner Wen Zhou is from Ningbo in Zhejiang, eastern China.
    The pair’s covetable fashion brand is among hundreds of American labels eyeing the massive China market as bricks-and-mortar fashion retailing struggles back home. But with their natural links to China, Lim and Wen have an advantage – they already operate four stores in the country, and China’s online e-commerce giant JD.com sponsored the label’s most recent New York Fashion Week show.


    Lim collaborated with floral artist Mark Colle on an exhibition in Shanghai that was abstracted from his spring-summer 2018 collection.

    In Shanghai, Lim worked with floral artist Mark Colle on a floral exhibition abstracted from his spring-summer 2018 collection, accompanied by a stunning interactive music element.
    “It’s in my blood,” he says. “As I get older and older I feel more connected [to China] … Wen and I are children of immigrants, first-generation Chinese immigrants. We’re proud of who we are.”
    Lim and Wen started their company at a time when New York’s scene seemed to be flush with new fashion brands led by talented Asian American creative directors such as Alexander Wang, Jason Wu and Peter Som. With a path paved by the previous generation, including Vera Wang, Anna Sui and Vivienne Tam, New York seemed the epicentre not only of nouveau 21st century American style, but also an urbane Asian American movement.
    Lim’s elegant, cool-girl chic is founded on expert, modern tailoring and sumptuous fabrications – making the award-winning designer one of the most name-checked brands in New York.
    “For us being ‘Made in China’ was a privileged thing – our products were being made by the most skilful, talented people,” says Lim. He acknowledges that it can be difficult within the luxury market to “counter the stereotype that ‘Made in China’ is subpar and secondary”.


    A look from 3.1 Phillip Lim’s women's spring-summer 2018 collection. Photo: Reuters

    Turn the clock back several years and you find few brands, even Asian American ones, who would openly admit, let alone celebrate the fact that they manufactured in China. The stigma attached to “Made in China” is in fact only just beginning to fade.
    “It’s going to take a long time [for this to change]. People still see it as a place that’s fast and huge and a black hole,” the designer says. “Our Chinese-based factories are so used to clients who just want cheap, fast and large quantities” that the skill of many of those workers was not fully developed or valued.
    Lim explored these possibilities at his Chinese factory, by asking staff to make a T-shirt by hand.
    “At first they were trying to tell me to machine-make it, as it would be faster and cheaper, but I insisted,” recalls Lim. The results? “That T-shirt became my signature,” Lim says with a smile.


    Stripes and more stripes at 3.1 Phillip Lim’s spring-summer 2018 women’s show. Photo: EPA

    Lim, and a handful of others, are in an enviable position in fashion. Having established themselves on the global stage, their shift to China is smoother “because we are the customer, we are Chinese”. Still, the independent label is in no rush to open a 3.1 Phillip Lim store on every Chinese high street. The approach will be more tortoise than hare.
    “It is still quite daunting, it’s a huge marketplace. We try to approach it more like a boutique: slow and steady, otherwise you can become a victim.”
    Gene Ching
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  11. #26
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    Who are they kidding?

    They are kidding people who don't normally read the alphabet. Just imagine the reverse using Chinese characters.

    Who are they kidding? Hilarious pictures of made-in-China knockoffs show 'Nibe' sneakers, 'Paradi' handbags and 'Owega' watch shops
    Counterfeit goods that are made in China took designs and names of the original
    They usually sell at a much cheaper price, or being exported to other countries
    Pictures emerged showing a collection of different 'Made-in-China' knockoffs
    By Tiffany Lo For Mailonline
    PUBLISHED: 11:22 EDT, 19 October 2017 | UPDATED: 11:21 EDT, 20 October 2017

    Over the years, the Chinese commercial market has been expanding and the nation has been exporting goods to other countries.

    It's not surprising to see Chinese companies producing counterfeits after some of the world's most famous brands.

    Whilst some of these knockoffs might have good quality, others could get so wrong that they appear to be hilarious.

    Such fake products range from an Owega (Omega) watch, a pair of Nibe (Nike) shoes to a Pearlboy (Playboy) shop.

    According to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, counterfeit goods that trade from southeast Asia to other countries are worth about 24.4 billion USD ( £18.51 bn) in a year.

    Read on below to find out more 'Made in China' knockoffs.


    Chinese company Chongqing Lifan made a car model copying BMW's MINI Cooper


    A Playboy-like clothing brand called Pearlboy that sells down jackets in China


    The headphone set is printed with a trademark which was supposed to say 'Sony'


    Because everything looks better when it's complete: The AEIPPIE logo is not bitten off


    Corcs clogs! These popular shoes looks as real as the official brand, but not the spelling


    Will young people have more fun playing Grand Theft Auto on their POP Station Portable?


    The fake Heineken, called Heimekem (left), guarantees that customers would enjoy premium quality. Mr Jack Daniel would not approve for this knock-off version whiskey (right)
    continued next post
    Gene Ching
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  12. #27
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    continued from previous post


    When Panasonic battery marks to perform 'super heavy duty', a PenesamiG battery can only be used for 'general purpose'


    Devils wear Paradi? Copying a similar font as the luxurious Prada, Paradi offers casual wear


    Two horses, one message: This jeans brand gives a cartoon-like imitation of the Levi Strauss & Co classic trademark


    Impossible is nothing: Chinese workers have redesigned the logo of German sports brand Adidas in many amusing way (left and right)


    Just do it! The signature swoosh of Nike is being used as the Chinese knock-off 'Nire'


    Don't mind the swoosh! This shop, Nibe, changes the name and design of popular brand Nike


    Because one swoosh is not enough, you need two to swirl around a basketball
    continued next post
    Gene Ching
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  13. #28
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    continued from previous post



    Nobody's Lovin' It! A jewellery and jade shop used the iconic McDonald's yellow arches


    When Burger King said you can 'have it your way', King Burger surely takes the word in account (left). If you can't afford an Omega, try this Owega store (right)


    A value pack of fake Gillette', called GilnGhey, that comes with a razor, blades and shaving cream (left); China's clothing brand 'HengHee' took the inspiration from Lacoste (right)
    Knock Offs - Made in China of course.[
    Gene Ching
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  14. #29
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    49th

    I predict the tide will start to turn on this. Like I've often said - if China could master quality control, they could rule the world of merchandise. But we're still a long way off from that.

    Many Chinese Netizens Agree With Worldwide Survey Downgrading ‘Made in China’ Label
    By Frank Fang, Epoch Times
    October 29, 2017 1:41 pm Last Updated: October 30, 2017 10:16 am


    A Chinese worker makes stuffed panda toys for export at a toy factory in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province on Oct. 9, 2017. A recent survey placed China at the bottom of a “Made-in-Country Index.” (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

    Perhaps it doesn’t come as a shock when an international survey shows that the “Made in China” label does not generate the highest consumer confidence. However, when the product tag from the Middle Kingdom fell behind that of Bangladesh, the news generated a lot of anger on Chinese social media. For some, they couldn’t agree more with the low ranking.

    The survey, carried out by German-based data provider Statista, asked 43,034 people in 52 countries about their perception of products made in three countries, giving a total of 129,102 assessments, with each country assessed by at least 2,500 people. The resulting Made-in-Country-Index (MICI) ranked Germany first, followed by Switzerland and the European Union. While the United States came in at eighth, tied with Japan and France, China came in at 49th.

    Survey participants perceived products from Germany to possess high quality and high-security standards, while Japanese products were mostly associated with advanced technology. As for products made in China, they were connected to a very good price-performance ratio.

    On China’s social media, many netizens reacted with outrage—some accused the survey of being Western propaganda with fake data, while others suggested that Western research institutions were not very trustworthy.

    Quite a few netizens, however, voiced their approval of the low ranking by pointing out problems in China, on the comment section of the Chinese news portal Sina.

    “Even gutter oil and dead pork cannot be contained. It is lucky to even make the ranking,” wrote a netizen with the moniker “Duan Shu An” from Hebei Province.

    Another netizen from Hubei Province wrote, “This country is built on knockoff products. And there is not much to complain about when there are so few recognizable [Chinese] brands … People making fake products are becoming so rich, and those with some integrity in running their businesses are on the brink of bankruptcy.”

    For years, China has been plagued by food problems: “mutton meat” made from rats, expired meat in McDonald’s burgers, plastic rice, and gel-injected shrimps, to provide a few examples.

    The lack of trust with domestic products has led many Chinese to scoop up everything—from baby formula to toilet seats, and rice cookers to diapers—when they travel abroad. The low confidence in locally-made products has also slowed down the Chinese economy.

    But in one incident, fake products turned out to be a life-saver. In March 2016, a man from Shandong Province tried to kill himself by swallowing over 200 sleeping pills. However, he woke up after a short sleep—a hospital visit afterward confirmed that the pills he had taken were fake.
    Gene Ching
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  15. #30
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    Indian gods made in China

    Intriguing article - wonder how this affects Hindu Feng Shui?

    MAKE IN INDIA?
    Seven reasons why Chinese-made Hindu gods rule Indian markets


    China's own Make in India. (AP photo/Gurinder Osan)

    WRITTEN BY
    Farok J Contractor
    October 31, 2017 Quartz India

    Gaily coloured resin figurines of Hindu gods are plentiful in India’s hundreds of thousands of bazaars. Most shopkeepers do not know where the figurines were manufactured or, if they do, will not tell. India increasingly imports mass-produced idols of Hindu deities from China—by the millions since 2000.
    Demand is growing for such household deities, along with rising incomes and a spirit of Hindu nationalism. Most Indians, 82% of the population, practice Hinduism and have a prayer area in their home. Even the poor—about 500 million Indians earn less than $2.75 per day—can afford a few such items, with retail prices starting at $3.
    Questions emerge about why don’t Indians manufacture their own figurines and how do Chinese producers undersell local manufacturers, considering transportation and a tariff of 10%? Some of the merchandise made in China, including locks or jewelry, is made with raw materials supplied by India. Indian shops and street vendors are awash with inexpensive Chinese goods of reasonable quality including LED lighting, electronics, and smartphones. India has talented and hard-working entrepreneurs, and as labor costs escalate in China, India could also become a “manufacturer for the world.”
    But in 2016, Indian merchandise exports to the world were $264 billion, while China’s were $2,098 billion. The China-India bilateral trade balance is skewed in favor of China by a ratio of 4 to 1 overall. For goods, the imbalance is even worse, about six to one.
    India’s government under Narendra Modi had hoped to turn such imbalances around by launching the “Make-in-India” campaign in September 2014, taking advantage of his country’s low labor costs for manufacturing: 92 cents per hour compared to China’s more than $4 per hour for workers along the eastern seaboard, where most Chinese manufacturing takes place, according to the Conference Board.


    Trade deficit in goods: India’s total trade has increased in recent years, but negative trade balances with China still linger (source: The Economic Times, India).

    India’s economists scramble to explain the ballooning trade deficit, and here are seven leading factors:

    Scale: Most manufacturing in China is done on a large scale—for example, an Indian producer may have three plastic injection-molding machines, whereas a Chinese counterpart has more than 70. Larger scale means that overhead and fixed costs can be spread over more units of production, thereby reducing the cost per unit.

    Productivity: A McKinsey report notes that “…workers in India’s manufacturing sector are almost four and five times less productive, on average, than their counterparts in Thailand and China, respectively.” Chinese workers may be paid four times the Indian hourly wage, but if output per worker is more than five times greater compared with workers in India, then China has a competitive advantage. Analysts suggest the problem rests with management and regulations, not labor. According to the McKinsey report, Indian factories lag in automated equipment, capacity utilization, supply chains, and quality control. For example, few successful factory owners expand plants beyond 99 workers. Labor regulations are more complicated for plants with more than 100 employees where government approval is required under the Industrial Disputes Act of 1947 before laying off any employee, even if demand drops. Firms can go bankrupt, forced to pay monthly wages for years following a plant closure. Likewise, the Contract Labor Act of 1970 requires government and employee approval for simple changes in an employee’s job description or duties.

    Corruption: India and China both rank 79th out of 176 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2016. The tie in rank masks differences. Corruption in China occurs at a higher level, with less frequency and little impact on day-to-day operations. By contrast, bribery in India is petty and frequent, impinging on everyday actions such as getting an electricity connection, changing a job description, or paying a bill. Ultimately, India’s pervasive corruption is more psychologically and economically debilitating than China’s.
    The Modi government has promised to amend labor laws to reduce the number of strikes and slow-downs. With more than 16,000 distinct unions, each affiliated with a plethora of political parties, the Indian economy loses up to 23 million person-days each year from labor actions. China does not release such figures, but its unions report to the single government-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

    Transport: The distance from Guangzhou in China to Mumbai is five times greater than that between Delhi to Mumbai. But cargo costs for the 7,300 kilometers by sea are roughly comparable to truck freight for the internal, 1,400 kilometers by road. Assuming 25,000 Hindu figurines per container, with ocean freight costs averaging $1,000 per container from Guangzhou to Mumbai, the transport cost per unit is around 4 US cents. Assuming two 9 ton capacity trucks needed between Delhi and Mumbai, the cost per unit is also just under 4 cents, for less than one-fifth the distance.

    Electricity: Nominally speaking, electricity costs for industry are comparable in China and India at about 8 cents per kilowatt hour. But Chinese businesses enjoy a continuous supply of power whereas India suffers from chronic blackouts and shortages because demand outstrips supply. Some factories have power cut off for a few hours each day. Even worse, interruptions are often not announced in advance, causing havoc with production schedules.

    Bureaucracy: The real constraint on starting a new business in India is its multiethnic, democratic, and compassionate traditions, manifested in regulatory procedures that continuously hamper business operations. For example, acquiring land is more difficult in India than in China. Both countries have populations of more than 1 billion, but India has a third of China’s total land mass. Delays and bureaucracy, as much as costs, add impediments to expanding in India. By contrast, government fiat in China is sufficient to immediately displace thousands, if needed.


    Ease of doing business: The World Bank survey examines export/import procedures across 189 nations including costs of loading containers at port, number of forms required by each authority and approval times (Source: World Bank, 2016 data)

    The World Bank compares 189 nations on “Ease of Doing Business” and shows a more benign business climate for China with fewer regulations, lower costs of compliance, shorter times for approvals, and better legal recourse. On most indicators, Chinese businesses have a much easier time than their Indian counterparts in securing permits with fewer procedures.

    Subsidies: Many of the 50-odd companies in China that produce Hindu figurines attend trade fairs not only in India, but also in Frankfurt and Las Vegas. Besides Hindu deities, they produce Christian and Buddhist figures and other household decorations. Marketing expenses are tax deductible, sometimes subsidized, and a culture of international marketing savvy extends to even smaller enterprises in China.
    Like many other nations, China supports its exporters. Around 45% of Chinese company output is state-owned. Favored companies can get inexpensive land, low borrowing rates, and, in some cases, subsidized power and assurances of government purchases of future output. The Wall Street Journal suggests that as much as 14% of listed, non-financial companies’ profits can be attributed to government support.
    Of course, India also provides export-oriented incentives—including rebates on tariffs, land and tax incentives in free trade zones, reduced state tax levies, financial support for attendance at international trade fairs, market development grants, and low-cost loans.
    All said however, subsidies and incentives represent but a small part of the explanation for China’s export success. Despite Modi’s “Make in India” campaign, India’s trade imbalance with China and the world has only worsened. Eliminating unnecessary bureaucratic interference could help to turn India into a factory for the world someday.

    This piece was first published on YaleGlobal Online. We welcome your comments at ideas.india@qz.com.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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