MPhil W1
Translation
Foreign expertise has been critical as manufacturing supply chains become
increasingly complex, involving multiple countries that separately produce
individual components that are then shipped to China for final assembly.
Since such a system can render global trade statistics misleading; some
experts say that a more apt label would be "Assembled in China."
Because so many different people in different places touch a particular
product, other experts say you might as well just throw away the trade
figures.
"In a globalized world, bilateral trade figures are irrelevant," said Dong
Tao, an economist at UBS. "The
trade balance between the U.S. and China is as irrelevant as the trade
balance between New York and Minnesota."
China's supply of cheap labor, coupled with a deliberately undervalued
currency, helped bring about $465 billion in foreign direct investment into
China from 1995 to 2004, making the country one of the hottest destinations
in the world for foreign capital.
In the electronics industry, relocations to China have soared.
A decade ago, Taiwan controlled the computer components market and relied on
domestic manufacturing.
Now, Taiwanese companies produce 80 percent of the world's motherboards, 72
percent of all notebook computers and 68 percent of liquid crystal display
monitors. And most of the assembly takes place in China.
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