Made in China

Today, we remember the bombing of the American naval installations at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Imperial navy to start off the Pacific theater of the second world war. It took place more than 60 years ago, about a decade before I was born.

Curiously, there was a high-ranking military official in that Japanese fleet whose words were both pragmatic and prophetic. He said that their attack should wipe out the entire American Pacific fleet or reduce it to a point unable to put up a meaningful defense in order to open the corridor for a quick military victory. To him, the Japanese needed to end the conflict quickly in their favor because a war of attrition could yield an entirely different outcome. He reasoned that a protracted warfare could give time to the vast American industrial might to turn the tide of the war.

True indeed, in the subsequent battle of Midway, the Japanese lost their initial upper hand. Their mighty carrier fleet was so decimated by a plethora of breaks as to prevent them from becoming the masters of the seas. Not only did they lose the ability to land an unchallenged force on US shores, more importantly they gave additional time to US industries to produce,   in blinding volume and unbelievable sophistication, necessary military materiel that, the end, as foreseen, came differently.

I remember that Japanese official now not in the context of an armed conflict anymore. His words are, to me, more relevant today in the light of worldwide economic crises starting with what ails the US.

America is suffering a distressed economy because it has surrendered the vastness of its industrial productivity. I am not an expert in economy and my training does not bring me to any tableau anywhere near understanding it, but, in my latest sojourn to the American shores I was alarmed by what I saw.

It has something to do with production, particularly of consumer items, which I witnessed when I joined the crowd in that nation's Black Friday last week. All throughout the US, the Friday that follows their Thanksgiving Day (the fourth Thursday of November) serves to usher their spending in relation to the holidays. Malls all over America open their doors, some as early as 5 o'clock in the morning, to hordes of patrons seeking to spend their dollars on almost everything in the market and at good, meaning discounted prices.

In the few malls I tried to browse around, I, perhaps on account of a mentality people call as colonial, was looking for products "Made in USA". I found very few. Those which I planned to buy, none. The American market is filled with products manufactured by foreign countries especially China, Japan and Korea.

Clothing, shoes, toys, electronic items, hardware goods, home decors, ah, name it all and you have them made mostly in China. The best of electronic appliances carry Japanese brands. Souvenir items sold at tourist destination points and historical places are, you guessed it, made in China. On the road, Japanese and Korean cars dominate.

What has happened to American manufacturers? I learned later that US capital finds Chinese manpower cheap. Labor being a huge component of production, the dollar is invested in China. What a trade off! If only to get cheaper hands, American companies have shut down their production lines in their own land and do business in China. Certainly, there must be some effects on the fact that, in the process, many Americans are deprived of job opportunities otherwise available to them.

The innovativeness of remaining American manufacturers still operating there may also be a factor. Their industrial think tanks have, probably, ceased to explore more viable and exciting products. How else could anyone explain why the sales of Japanese (and to smaller extent, Korean) cars continue to eat into the pie but their efficiency and utility?

This crisis, I like to believe, is their wake up call. There will be time for them to make the engines of their production churn. When that happens, they still can win this battle for economic survival.

* * *

Email: [email protected]