1、Whether Or Not China Has Become a World Factory Abstact: In fact, much of manufacturing in China is heavily concentrated on labor intensive, China today is a vital part of the global supply chain simple processing and assembly operations challenge for China now is not just to be a part of the global
2、 supply chain, but to move up the value chain as well. Key words ： industry manufacture technology world factory Be it is that the media of Japan intend to inspire a sense of national self-improvement in its people, or that the US media further play up the “theory of China threat” as raised by some
3、Americans, in short, recently, some foreign media have all along been preaching that China has become a “world factory”. It seems that this kind of “preaching” is not wind coming from hollow cave-being not a groundless rumor, perhaps reliable data are enough to make us “feel complacent”: “China-made
4、” products have penetrated into every corner of the world, in 2001 alone, the volume of Chinas export commodities reached US$266 billion, of which 90 percent belonged to industrial manufactured products. At the same time, 80 percent of the world top 500 transnational enterprises have entered China,
5、390,000 foreign-funded enterprises have been operating in China, China has leapt to second place in the world in the absorption of foreign direct investment. China has become the worlds fourth largest manufacturing industrial center, said Chen Xingdong, chief representative of French Peregrine in Ch
6、ina, at the Forum on the Development of the World Manufacturing Industry and the Outlook of Chinas Economy concluded on July 28, currently there is a fashionable word abroad-go to China, share the fruit of Chinas development. However, Jing Shuping, vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chin
7、ese Peoples Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, indicated in response to the preaching of foreign media, “I think their preaching is a bit too exaggerated”. What he said was not imagination, but was supported by most convincing
8、 data. During and after the 60s of the 19th century, Britain was the “world factory”, with the proportion of its manufacturing industrial output value reaching 20 percent of the world total, while that of China at present is only 5 percent of the world total； at that time, Britain produced 53 percen
9、t of the worlds iron and 50 percent of coal, while in 2000, Chinas export of ordinary steel and iron was worth US$4 billion, while at the same time it had to import US$9.7 billion worth of fine-quality and special steel and iron, with trade deficit reaching US$5.7 billion； in 2001, in the placing of
10、 the world top 500 enterprises, 11 were Chinese enterprises without a single one being manufacturing enterprises. What made one feel more uneasy even when eating and sleeping was that Chinas manufacturing enterprises were not only few in quantity but poor in quality. In the production chain of globa
11、l manufacturing industries, Chinese enterprises are swaying on the middle and low sides. Chinese enterprises mostly adopt the OEM manufacturing method, around 74 percent of the export value of 200 top Chinese foreign trade enterprises are registered through the method of processing trade. Therefore,
12、 at the recent forum, scholars, based on their forward-looking judgment and entrepreneurs, based on their sensitivity, came to a sober-minded conclusion: Currently, China is still not a “world factory”. Vice-Chairman Chen Jin hua of the CPPCC National Committee said at the forum, in the history of w
13、orld economy, countries called the world factory coming in order, were Britain, the United States and Japan, “in my opinion, judged by comprehensive national strength, the quality and competitive capability of the manufacturing industry, particularly the possession of automatic core technologies, Ch
14、ina, compared with advanced industrial countries, still has a long way to go.” Of course, we are longing to become a “world factory”, this is not only because Chinas modernization cannot be achieved without a strong manufacturing industry, what is more, this industry provides a best opportunity for
15、solving the transfer of Chinas surplus rural labor force. According to Gao Shangquan, president of the China Economic Restructuring Research Institute, the indirect significance of Chinas becoming a world factory outdoes its direct significance, what he refers to precisely is Chinas march from a tra
16、ditional agricultural country。 of several thousand years old to an industrialized country. Then, will China become a “world factory”? At present, China has possessed the favorable conditions for making a “world factory”. Concentrating our energy to give play to Chinas comparative advantages will mak
17、e it possible for the country to become a “world factory” in the next 10-20 years. Chinas biggest comparative advantages are its mammoth contingent of labor power and cheap labor cost. The Paris Company of France predicts that in the coming two decades, China will be able to maintain a strong contin
18、gent of labor force, the large quantity of newly added labor power is enough to control the labor cost at a low level. Although the proportion of Chins university students is relatively low, people with a secondary school education made up 48.7 percent of the total population in 2000, along with the
19、 steady increase in education expenditure, the education level of the younger generation will further rise. In addition, Chinas high economic growth has created a favorable investment environment. Recently, large numbers of foreign business people have set up research and development centers in Chin
20、a, China is expected to become a “world laboratory”, at the same time, foreign enterprises have intensified their procurement efforts in China, setting up parts and components production and purchase networks. Sources say that the General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Kodak and other transnationa
21、l corporations have recently declared their intention to establish purchasing centers in China. Experts with the Shenzhen Comprehensive Development Research Institute said that the concept of “world factory” is quite different from what it was before, it is no longer something for which a country fi
22、ghts a lone battle, but rather many countries come together to make a “world factory”. Moreover, the main characteristics of a “world factory” in the information age are different from that in the epoch of industrialization: It is caused by the revolution of information technology, it is related to the extension and expansion of a world factory in the epoch of industrialization. But, unlike the “world factory” in the epoch
