GIVE IT A
THOUGHT
Economic Invasion of China
Now
that President Obama has vowed to stop outsourcing to China and India
and curb China’s unfair
trade practices, India will
have to face China’s
increased economic invasion, if it is not wary.
Where else will China
dump its committed production, if not in India? India is already flooded with
Chinese goods. Step into any shop to buy
ordinary things you use in daily life, scissors, blades, batteries, mosquito
bats, calculators, the list is endless, they are all from China. Once, I had a need to buy a pair of
scisssors, and stepped into a store, with a firm resolution, only to buy Indian
made scissors. After saying “no” to the
shop owner’s offer to sell a pair of scissors from China, I chose an Indian made pair. Although it’s blades looked flimsy, it was
able to cut a scrap of newspaper, when I
put it to test. When I paid the price
and brought it home, it would not cut anything else, except newspapers. Most importantly, it would not cut even the
thin plastic milk sachet, for which purpose I bought the article.
If
what I think will happen, does happen, more and more Indian’s will be out of
employment, as it happened in the U.S., unless every citizen of India takes a
firm decision to buy only Indian made goods, however bad it might be. The World Bank has warned that another bout
of recession is round the corner, this time more serious that the first. India escaped the first bout with
just mild abrasions, due to its overwhelming population and the opportunities
that exist for the small-time
manufacturers and traders. But this time, India
will be seriously vulnerable to recession, with China stepping up its aggressive
marketing in our country, consequent to the loss of a large chunk of the
American market. As some fear, China need not eye territories in India,
for, what is a territory, if its riches can be exploited otherwise, by turning
it into a lucrative market, without the responsibility of taking care of its
people?
A.V. Dhanushkodi
January
26, 2012
Wouldn't it be better for Indians to make better scissors than the Chinese ones?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely true! I agree with you one hundred percent.
ReplyDeleteFirst, my comment that every Indian should decide to buy only Indian goods, however bad they might be, was meant to be sarcastic. If it did not convey that tone and meaning, it is the shortcoming of my writing style.
Secondly,if India could produce better scissors and other commonplace commodities cheaper than China, it would have. There are many factors, which preempt that scenario: high profit motive, militant labour demands, lack of large-scale domestic market to be able to implement optimum manufacturing scale to bring down prices, lack of quality consciousness among consumers, etc. China is increasingly manufacturing almost everything for the world market and with that goal in view, it knocks out almost all of the factors I have listed above. I often read about the abysmal labour conditions and wages obtaining in China to achieve that end. Can our governments engineer such a situation in India, to be able to compete with China?
Even more disturbing is the news that in India, near Bokaro, a steel plant is coming up with Chinese collaboration, with 1500 Chinese workers employed in constructing it. Surely, there are any number of manufacturing facilities established in India with various foreign collaborators, but only with high level technical and managerial staff from abroad being present at the construction sites and not, I repeat, not with base level workers. The reason given out is that the Chinese workers will be able complete the factory in record time. I do believe it to be true! After sixty-five years of independence do we not have the basic labour skill and the technology required for setting up a steel plant? We do have, but we will drag on, for obvious reasons, which is not affordable, as in the case of any number of common articles.
China has realized that, even to exist, it is of paramount importance that people are provided with work and that they are made to work ruthlessly full time or even more, at whatever cost!
With China producing good quality goods for the whole world, no wonder another recession is looming large round the corner! And that would include China also, for, who will buy its goods, if the potential consumers of other countries are out of jobs, and consequently out of income, because their jobs have been outsourced to China? If that scenario comes true, even China cannot consume its own goods, because its people cannot buy its own cheap good quality goods, with their abysmal wage levels. It will be a self-vitiating scene even for China, as it is already so for the other countries which outsource the manufacture of their goods to China.
A.V. Dhanushkodi