[newsio]

The list under the subheading "What Is the Chinese Economic Model?" is worth reading. He is overly harsh on some points ("there is perhaps a 30-year supply of poverty-level wage earners happy to make export goods at below global cost") but he is right on the money for others (currency manipulation, stolen IP, etc.)

Note that this came out more than a week before Google made its announcement that it was considering pulling out of China. I think other startups or established companies considering an expansion into China should read this first. There are certainly opportunities, but lots of asterisks too.

[nfnaaron]

"When one of Australia’s top mining firms, Rio Tinto, refused to allow China’s Chinalco to double its ownership interest last year (to 18%), China arrested local CEO (and Australian citizen) Stern Hu and three managers, who remain in jail today, under espionage charges. China denies any connection. In politics, thought, and business, China remains a police state."

I think any CEO should be concerned about his and his employees' safety in light of this kind of thing.

[misdirection]

> at below global cost

The funny thing about cost is that it defines itself.

[mrtron]

Not when you manipulate your currency and throw aside human rights and environmental restrictions.

The playing field isn't level.

[jhancock]

The currency manipulation was agreed to by many foreign countries. China could not have done this without WTO and U.S. approval.

There are many human rights problems in China, but it is unfair to say they throw _all_ these issues aside. I known many Han Chinese that openly support Tibetan culture and wish to see it preserved.

Environment damage has been a calculated cost and there are many in China that push against it trying to say its time to pull back. A few years ago, I was walking up to a subway station in the Shanghai suburbs. There was a group of local college students with a huge banner urging people to protect the environment. They were asking people to sign the banner. I stopped and said hello and signed. The students were thrilled to have a foreigner sign, but the banner already had hundreds of local Chinese signatures on it. There were no police harassing them and the students seemed at ease in their public protest.

Sure, the playing field is not level. This is by design and China is fairly transparent about the mechanisms they will use to protect or lock in economic growth.

Look at a different trading partner with the U.S.; take a look at Mexico. NAFTA was promoted as a "trade highway" to U.S. voters. Most would take that to imply the highway goes in both directions. But if you have done business in Mexico or travelled there outside the confines of a resort, you'd notice that U.S. goods do not move into Mexico as freely as Mexican goods move out. In English, we always distinguish something that is "one-way" by being sure to say so. But, I never heard a U.S. politician talk about the one-directional nature of NAFTA. I think much of our problem with China is that most simply don't know what the real deal is and some of us are just starting to figure it out.

[mcdoh]

Not to mention subsidizing the production of raw materials such as steel. If China could put more US steel mills out of operation they could raise the price considerably. The cost of bringing a steel mill back online is astronomical.

[BrentRitterbeck]

Sorry about the downvote. It was a mouse slip. It should have been a +1.