I'm not saying that they don't have value, but let's not fool ourselves into thinking that the Chinese have contributed anything more than cheap labor.
After World War II, the United States rebuilt Japan's economy. In the 1940s and 1950s, EVERYTHING being made in Japanese factories was junk. However, the Japanese were paying attention and doing everything they could to improve. By the 1970s, products coming out of Japan were as good or better than anything in the world. The Japanese developed VHS in the early 70s, by the 80s they had made it affordable and it changed TV viewing forever.
NONE of this is coming out of China. American, European, Japanese and Korean companies build cheap factories in China, show the Chinese how to assemble whatever it is the foreign company wants and do it cheaper than anywhere else in the world. People talk about how the Chinese standard of living is going up, but that's not true. Some Chinese have become incredibly wealthy, but the workers are impoverished by Western standards. As soon as Chinese wages begin to approach Western wages, the companies will pull out of China and go somewhere cheaper and this would ruin China's economy and they know it.
Exactly right. The ones getting rich in China are the ones who have connections and pay bribes probably.
check out the average income of China, India and Mauritius.
Seriously, Mauritius is doing better.
The Japanese improved because under the Marshall Plan we sent quality control genius William Edwards Deming to Japan with a team of industrial engineers to fix their manufacturing sector.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming