I hold with those who struggle to understand why seemingly everything we buy now is made in China. How did we get here? Is it bad that we're here? How much control do we actually have over the quality of the goods we purchase every day? Ms. Harney may not have all the answers, but The China Price goes a long way to illuminating the complex reality of how China has so swiftly become a leading, manufacturing power in our world.
Thirty years ago, China was an impoverished mess. More than half a billion people lived on a dollar a day, uneducated, rural peasants locked into a life of endless, repetitious toil. But with Chinese economic reforms, ignited by the Special Economic Zones in the 1980s, and the weakening of labor unions in the United States, the pendulum of profitability began to swing towards Asia. If American companies could export their labor to China, use impoverished Chinese workers to manufacture their product and ship them to the United States for sale in wealthy, first-world markets, they could rake in huge revenues without raising the prices of their products. Just lower the overhead costs and wham, you're in the black. This relationship between Chinese labor and Western distributions hasn't just strengthened in the decades since, it has drawn hundreds of millions of rural Chinese to the cities where the jobs waiting for them lifted them out of poverty. Meanwhile, in the West, manufacturing jobs were lost and consumer groups grumbled, but the masses were happy because, well, they could buy their clothes, toys, and electronics dirt cheap. And in the end, as Ms. Harney demonstrates, patriotism doesn't stand a chance against the prospect of buying the same foreign good for half price.
The China Price is the result of this relationship. It refers to the new reality that Western nations simply cannot manufacture goods as cheaply as China can. As a result, Western companies looking to maximize profitability, have relocated their manufacturing to sprawling, Chinese cities chalked full of factories that make a startlingly high percentage of Western goods. Ms. Harney does a wonderful job explaining the recent history of China's rise, but it's her examination of these cities of manufacturing that give soul to her piece. She talks to Chinese workers who have gone uncompensated for work-place accidents, who have endured Hellish hours to fulfil productivity requirements, and who have been coached to conceal all of this from Western companies who have been pressured by their consumers to ensure that their products are manufactured humanely. Balancing this exploitation are her conversations with Chinese entrepreneurs who don't understand why the West cares what working conditions in Chinese factories are like. For them, the world is reduced to who can produce the most products for the cheapest price and right now, that's China.
This is a well-rounded account of the rise of Chinese manufacturing and the modernizing influence it has had on the country. It soberly connects all the myriad dots, concluding that the Western desire to buy cheap products has driven a complete re-shaping of manufacturing in the world. Of course, the China Price won't last forever. At some point, the standard of living in China will rise to a point where labor won't be so cheap, elevating manufacturing costs and driving those jobs elsewhere. But until that day comes, the lights will be burning bright in Chinese cities for which the West has no names. (4/5 Stars)
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