Made in China

During my days in the U.S., I paid quite a bit of attention on how the American viewed China, the country, and Chinese, the people. Certainly, there is so many aspects that I can elaborate about this topic and mostly likely I will do that in future when the times come.

Anyway, the latest news about problem of Chinese products really got me thinking. There have been talks about how western media ‘demonizes’ China in the last couple of years. I think it is true to some extent. For example in the States, I think the mass media really has tremendous effect on the image of China and Chinese in the American society.
To be honest, it is sadly to say that I feel somewhat pity for how narrow-minded many typical Americans are. They have the best technology in the world, telecommunication is so convenient, the libraries there are great, their publishing industry is absolutely the best in the world, you can find pretty much all sort of publications about any obscure subjects that you can imagine. Nonetheless, most typical American still only know things about their neighborhoods, their own states, or the country at most. For the rest of the world, hmmm….I think that they really don’t know much. Therefore, I perceive that what they really know about the world is pretty much from what they see in the media, particularly from news and from the foreign products that they bought. So, that makes the bias media very power in tilting how their audiences see the world according to the private agenda of the media. That’s also the reason why half of American supported Bush in his Iraqi crusade in the first place. Media can distort facts to become fictions, and can convert lies to become truth.

Anyway, go back to case of China. When I was in the States, I didn’t hear much about China in the news except in two types of situation. First, when the President or some senior officials met the Chinese leaders in some conferences or when some senators criticizing China’s policies. Second, when there is something bad happens there, like earthquakes, floods, riots, etc. That’s a bit different from U.S. allies, like Japan, you would see some news about new product creations being shown in evening news. With years of watching TV there, the negative issues about China are accumulating. Just cite a typical case about some cross table interviews among politicians/scholars on the topic of China, the string of issues at the tip of their tongues about China keep growing as time goes by: Tibet/Dalai Lama, one-child policy, Tianamen Square, arms to rogue states, military threat to Taiwan, treatment of political dissidents, religious freedom, trade deficits, currency control, etc. The list keeps on and on.

Nonetheless, my feeling is that the latest problem about tainted pet food, toothpaste, and other food/daily products from China is very different from the list above which are actually just ‘terms’ that are largely irrelevant in the public. They happen far away or in the past, or kinda ‘abstract’. But this time, the tainted products are really related to the day-to-day life of regular American. It is much worse than the so-called job loss to China issue. Cos, first of all, the job loss to China is debatable and questionable:
Manufacturing jobs are lost, but other jobs are created.
Those jobs are also lost to many other countries, including Mexico, Brazil, Vietnam, etc.
Shift of manufacturing to low cost countries benefits the American business and American public in many ways.

But, tainted foods affect everyone, and people (including pets) do die because of them. The value of life in China is no equal to life in the States. So, I think this case is really serious. People in China and in Hong Kong have been suffering from tainted foods for few years (at least they have been disclosed in the media). Improvements in control in China have been lackluster so far. I think with the broad international complaint of Chinese products this time, things are gonna be different. I don’t think this is simply a public relation nightmare that can be fixed by stupid retaliation or hard-line trash talk by some stiff spokesperson in Beijing. More effective control got to be in place to ensure the products are safe for the LONG TERM. Cos, reputation is easy to be destroy, but very hard to re-establish. Think about how long Japanese companies took to change American’s image of ‘Make in Japan’ in the 1960-70s. This time, I would say it is worst than that. Cos, China simply makes so many stuff. ‘Made in China’ is found everywhere. I would say it is gonna take a decade or more for China in this case.

However, at the end of the day, it will be good for everybody, people in China and Hong Kong will be beneficiaries as well. By then, products that ‘Made in China’ will likely to have same status as those ‘Made in Japan’, or ‘Made in Korea’ today. Like most things in the world, they always go in cycle: if they don’t get worse, they won’t get better!