
China scrambles to stem manufacturing exodus as companies leave - metaphysics
https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Trade-war/China-scrambles-to-stem-manufacturing-exodus-as-50-companies-leave
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ETHisso2017
Nikkei and Bloomberg seem to have an ideological axe to grind. From someone
who's on the ground here, China's manufacturing base is shifting up the value
chain pretty rapidly, which naturally shifts its relative attractiveness to
foreign companies as a source of contract manufacturing.

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toasterlovin
On the other hand, pretending like the tariffs haven’t been a bloodbath for
Chinese manufacturing seems unrealistic. I’m the CFO of a small company. Last
year, 100% of our products came from China. This year only 20% are coming from
China. And we’re trying our hardest to shift the remainder. Every other
company in our market has either made the same shift or is planning to.

~~~
TMWNN
According to Peter Zeihan's _The Accidental Superpower_ (2014), manufacturing
in China has gone from being one quarter as expensive as in Mexico to 25% more
expensive. He expects that the US shale and natural gas boom will further
reduce costs in Mexico and the US.

Also see "Why China should follow Trump’s example and cut taxes"
[http://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2056874/why-
ch...](http://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2056874/why-china-should-
follow-trumps-example-and-cut-taxes) . Quote: "As far as manufacturing is
concerned, according to Cao, everything is cheaper in America apart from
manpower."

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panpanna
Out of curiosity, how much of this is due to import tarifs and how much due to
rising wages?

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sambroner
It feels like a lot of it is due to the publicity around the tariffs.

The cost alone isn’t enough to make corps shift, but assuring the stock market
that the Corp is robust against continued tariffs and possible unrest appears
to be worthwhile.

There seems to be some combined anti-China, pro-anywhere-else marketing
involved as well.

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panpanna
But hasn't there been talk of moving from China to India/Vietnam for some
years now?

Did any of that actually happen or was it just talk until now?

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Rapzid
A lot of countries including Nintendo have moved and are moving to "Southeast
Asia".. Okay so sue me for not reading the article first; Nintendo is
mentioned. Giant is another. Not sure how widespread it is but it's real.

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nobrains
India, Vietnam and others are a big beneficiary of the US-China trade war.

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mikorym
I would hope that Africa would be, too, but it seems like that is a hope for
the future.

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loyukfai
The infrastructure seems much less developed in Africa?

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kypro
And it's much riskier to invest in countries with wide-spread corruption.

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loyukfai
I'd argue that as long as the (hidden) rules of corruption are somewhat known
and stable. That would be fine.

Also, some would consider the US lobbying industry is a legalised form of
corruption. (just an example, not trying to single out the US)

Anyway, am talking theoretically and it's all comparative.

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baybal2
A man in manufacturing here. Lets do a mini-AMA

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naltun
What exactly do you _do_?

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baybal2
Develop software, some times web dev of backends for IOT stuff, some times
closer to firmware.

And as of recently, I am an involuntary salesperson as we began gaining
clients in ex-USSR, and India/Pakistan/Bangladesh.

Over the past 12 years, I did work almost solely with either small OEMs or
companies buying from them. And I did a short dash with dotcoms. Wasn't able
to cope with PHBism there.

I'm very glad that my scope of work drifted towards something with a more
narrow scope over the years. Work with small OEMs is all about being a "do
everything man."

Previously I did simple circuit engineering, simple mechanical work, worked as
an interpreter, did commercial negotiations on behalf of clients, did parts
and product logistics, sourcing, even done package design and making up adhoc
brands few times.

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thrwer34234
Vietnam is actually very attractive, since it also has a FTA with India. It's
in the middle of the Asian Tigers and China, and is also not subject to the
colonial 'english-only' education system that is ravaging India and causing
large-scale unemployment.

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mangamadaiyan
I'm sorry, how exactly is the education system in India causing large-scale
unemployment? Citations needed.

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dougmwne
I was interested to learn more about this too and found this article:
[https://www.google.com/amp/s/qz.com/india/494396/indias-
obse...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/qz.com/india/494396/indias-obsession-
for-english-is-depriving-many-children-of-a-real-education/amp/)

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mangamadaiyan
Like most articles on the topic, it misses the point. The education system in
India is broken indeed; broken to the point that the _language of instruction
is more or less irrelevant_. The problems lie elsewhere. I'd love to expand
further, but (a) this would deviate from the topic of the thread, and (b)
would take much more time and space. Another time, another place, perhaps.

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thwer342341
> _language of instruction is more or less irrelevant_.

Since it is 'irrelevant', perhaps the colonial state can stop sapping our
taxes to fund 'english-only' universities, and instead educate and 'skill' the
90 % (instead of teaching them broken english). It's insane that being pro-
British empire is a stance that is even morally justified in a nation of 1
billion.

It's not at all surprising that India's socio-economic indicators are worse
even compared to Africa. How would it not be, when the state sucks the blood
of the non-elite basically to create an endless supply of white-collar labour
for English-speaking nations.

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mangamadaiyan
The language of instruction is irrelevant because there are deeper issues to
fix. The issues you mention ("pro-British") are irrelevant too, they are not
the problem. But I'm going to stop here and not engage with you further.

