标题: Economist, July 13, 2019 [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 7-18-2019 15:34 标题: Economist, July 13, 2019 I just clarified in my posting posted earlier today and titled "China Scrambles to Stem Manufacturing Exodus as 50 Companies Leave." I forgot to note the source of the quotation:
(The Japanese-language report says something that is not found in the English-language one: "外資企業は中国の輸出入の4割を占める。")
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(1) Chaguan | A Generation Divide; Team Trump is losing a messaging war about the date of Chinese students in America.
("In vain American participants in the forum noted that Western scholars in China have endured harsh visa restrictions for years")
Note:
(a) Earlier in the column, this is said, "Chaguan [the columnist who pens the column] spent July 8th and 9th at the World Peace Forum, a conference attended by Chiese leaders and foreign grandees, hosted by Tsinghua University in Beijing."
(i) This year's is the eighth (8th) Tsinghua World Peace Forum 世界和平论坛.
(ii) There is also World Peace Forum; Connecting peacemakers -- an annual event (since 2007) of the Schengen Peace Foundation (2005- ; a nonprofit based in Luxembourg). https://worldpeaceforum.org/https://worldpeaceforum.org
(b) There is no need to read the rest. 作者: choi 时间: 7-18-2019 15:34
(2) special report: Global Supply Chains; The world is not flat. I will highlight just three of seven reports in the series.
(a) Slowbolisaion | Bumpy New World; After several decades of getting longer, global supply chains are contracting.
(the first 1 1/2 paragraphs: "IN THE BOOM years of globalisation from 1990, one of the ideas that became gospel, spread by authors such as Thomas Friedman, was that the world had become flat. National boundaries mattered very little in terms of sourcing and manufacturing, went the argument. 'The idea was so pervasive, says Hau Lee of Stanford University, that 'companies just built anywhere' ")
The "contracting" in the subtitle means offshoring is no more.
(b) Three industries | Loving China, Leaving China; A look at where clothes, cars and computers are made reveals differing patterns of supply fragmentation. https://www.economist.com/specia ... g-in-different-ways
Excerpt in the window of print: Many firms are discovering that leaving China is not so easy [not due to Beijing's hiderance but because China is head and shoulders above the rest, in supply chains, and its workforce].
Quotation after the first 2 paragraphs: "Big parts of the clothing and footwear business involve labour-intensive tasks such as stitching, so cost-conscious bosses are always chasing low-cost markets. * * * Today's hot spot is Ethiopia * * * With labour costs of just $26 a month [in Ethiopia] * * * Clothing bosses are increasingly preoccupied with speed more than cost, says Suresh Dalai, a supply-chain expert based in Asia. 'In speed, China still has the edge,' he says, pointing to its world-beating online retailers, 'social-commerce' innovators and nimble manufacturers. * * * Unlike those cut0rate competitors, say experts, Chinese factories have the specialised machinery and experienced operators that are needed to make seamless fabrics and other high-value textiles. Pravin Rangachari of Haggard, a leading manufacturer of men's trousers, has no plan to abandon China's highly automated fabric mills, which he finds 'very competitive.' He adds that compliance with child-labour laws is strong in China, which cannot always be said about other markets. China's share in big clothes-importing markets such as Japan and Europe has declined since 2010 as they have been buying cheaper clothes made in South-East Asia instead. However, China's share in every textile-import [textile = fabric; versus clothing] market in Asia has soared because many of those workshop still bought [sic; I think it should be 'buy'] fabrics from the mainland. Its export share into Vietnam, for example, more than doubled to 50% from 2005 to 2017. The upshot is that although China's once-dominant role in this industry has diminished, it remains strong in important niches.
My comment: I skip over the other two industries: cars and computers. It is hard to believe that "China's share in big clothes-importing markets * * * has declined since 2010" when in 200s, China seemed to be unstoppable.
(c) Security | Safe or Sorry” Comapnies must get ready for a riskier world.
("The Huawei fallout could lead to the bifurcation of global markets into two incompatible 5G camps. Paul Triolo of Eurasia Group thinks it will 'force countries and companies to choose sides between America and China in the tech cold war.' In this scenario, Sweden's ericsson, Finland's Nokia and South Korea's Samsung would supply a pricier network comprised of kit made outside of China to serve customers allied with the United States. * * * Huawei would build a cheaper network for those countries less worried about China.
Note: This report is all about Huawei. 作者: choi 时间: 7-18-2019 15:34
(3) China's development finance | Hey, Big Lender; Nearly half of China's credit to poor countries is hidden. https://www.economist.com/financ ... s-to-poor-countries
(paragraphs 1 and 2: "Such is the frenetic pace of China’s overseas lending that its outstanding loans have risen from almost nothing in 2000 to more than $700bn today. It is the world's largest official creditor, more than twice as big as the World Bank and IMF combined. * * * A new study by Sebastian Horn and Christoph Trebesch of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and Carmen Reinhart of Harvard University")