Myth of China’s Manufacturing Prowess
      
People often compare China’s urbanization to Western industrialization in the 19[SUP]th[/SUP]  century. In both cases, a large population moved from the country to  the city. Society advanced from agricultural to industrial via  manufacturing on a massive scale.
 
However, there is a key misconception about China’s manufacturing prowess. In the United States and Europe, the manufacturing industry was  created due to technology innovation. For example, railways came into  existence because of the invention of the steam engine and automobiles  were created because of technology breakthroughs in automobile engines.
 In China, the manufacturing industry is being created in response to  global demand. 
Chinese manufacturers take orders from Western companies  that have designed products for their home markets. They have no  involvement with product development, innovation, market research, and  even packaging. Chinese manufacturers have no experience in bringing  their own products to overseas markets.
  Unlike the manufacturing industry in the West that gave birth to a  middle class of both white-collar and blue-collar workers, manufacturers  in China mostly absorb surplus labor from rural areas with few skills.  Those rural migrant workers live in dormitories, earn about $100 to $200  a month, and hardly fit into the category of the middle class. (To be  clear, there is a burgeoning middle class in China. Most of them are in  urban private businesses, state-owned enterprises, and multinationals).
 James Fallows, national correspondent for the Atlantic, visited many  factories in China. He saw people working on the assembly lines and was  convinced those tasks would only be performed by machines in the United  States.
 Yes, China is making efforts to drive its economy up the value chain.  The 11th Five-year Plan (2006 – 2010) called for “scientific  development.” A key initiative is an increase in the R&D-to-GDP  ratio from about 1.3 percent in 2005 to 2.5 percent by 2020. However,  how much of the funding is actually used for research and development  and how well the research is being transferred into manufacturing are  both highly questionable.
 Given the unpredictability of the regulatory environment, many  Chinese manufacturers tend to focus on short term gain. They compete on  volume and price, and only enjoy wafer-thin profit margins. This has  kept Chinese manufacturers from investing in research and development or  training employees.
 Recently, some Chinese manufacturers experienced a shortage of low-waged workers. On the other hand, 
millions of college graduates have been unable to find jobs.  With college tuition sky high, more and more young people are turning  to vocational schools, which may offer better prospects of employment at  lower cost. This means a majority of Chinese workers may be trapped in  low-skilled jobs, making China’s move up the value chain even more  challenging.
 While the rest of the world fears China’s manufacturing power, China  is trying to move away from its “sweatshop” manufacturing and become a  service-oriented economy. However, China may find itself locked into  place, at least for now, due to the hundreds of millions of rural  migrants that  need jobs.
 Contrary to the conventional view, manufacturing in the U. S. has  been growing in the past two decades despite the decline in  manufacturing jobs. The latest 
data  show that the United States is still the largest manufacturer in the  world. In 2008, U.S. manufacturing output was $1.8 trillion, compared to  $1.4 trillion in China
[1]. This means that the United States is producing goods with higher value, such as airplanes and medical equipment.
 In addition, most jobs the United States lost to China are  low-skilled jobs. By outsourcing those low-skilled jobs to China,  Americans have actually become more competitive in high-skilled jobs  such as management, innovation, and marketing. The low-skilled jobs also  serve China well as Chinese rural migrants have opportunities to move  up in life and gain some skills.
 The results are mutual beneficial. On one side of the globe, hundreds  of millions of Chinese rural migrant workers earn more, have a higher  standard of living, and their children have more training, which leads  to more growth. On the other side of the globe, Western consumers are  able to afford goods at lower prices and enjoy lower inflation.