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文|Severn
In September this year, the Belgian mineralogist Freisteger said: "In the future, if you go to the supermarket and buy a bar of soap, you may get a diamond, which sounds incredible, but it is very likely!"
From a practical point of view, Fleisteger's statement is not unreasonable, because the price of natural rough diamonds is rapidly falling.
In the last year alone, global diamond prices fell by 30 percent.
The main reason for the plunge in diamond prices is the rise of the Chinese artificial diamond market.
Freistger's concerns reflect the powerful impact of Chinese manufacturing on Western industry, which has become a price crusher for Western industry.
And behind all this, thanks to the huge Chinese population dividend, and the terrifying advantage of the whole industry chain formed on this basis.
The world's factory
In 2001, China became a new member of the WTO.
When China first arrived, it soon won the title of "World Factory" with its strong manufacturing output capacity.
Attracted by the global market, the huge potential of China's manufacturing industry has been rapidly stimulated, and it has leapt to the forefront of the world in just a few years.
In 2006, according to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, China's manufacturing industry became the world's largest producer in 172 categories.
7 percent of the world's toys, 5 percent of telephones, and one-third of color TVs and bags all come from the Chinese market.
With low prices, complete categories and novel styles, Chinese products occupy the first place in the world market with unique advantages and are favored by people all over the world.
In recent years, with the acceleration of China's economic rise, the continuous development of science and technology, and the continuous enhancement of enterprise strength, China's manufacturing products have been greatly improved in terms of quality, variety, and technology.
Made in China has become synonymous with high quality and low price.
Made in China to the international market is a key part of the implementation of the "going out" strategy of mainland enterprises.
After years of hard work, Made in China has not only provided the vitality of China's economy, but also contributed to the prosperity of the world economy and the well-being of all mankind.
According to statistics, China's total trade import and export volume will reach 42.07 trillion US dollars in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 7.7%, making it the world's largest trade exporter.
In the troika of economic growth, exports have been an important driving force.
According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, since its entry into trade in 2001, the mainland's contribution to the world economy has gradually increased.
In 2022, China's contribution to the world economy has surpassed that of the United States, reaching 36%, ranking first in the world.
Therefore, China's made-in exports are undoubtedly an important boost to promote world economic growth.
On the other hand, China's manufacturing industry has gone global, and many foreign-funded enterprises have also benefited from it.
According to the data, the import and export volume of foreign-invested enterprises accounts for 6% of China's total foreign trade import and export.
This means that Chinese-made products are loved by foreign consumers and have a huge profit market overseas.
In a sense, Made in China has become a part of the consumption concept of foreign consumers, and has an irreplaceable status and role in their consumer life.
It can be said that China's manufacturing industry has improved the well-being of people all over the world.
But at the same time, the rise of China's manufacturing industry has also brought a strong impact to the manufacturing industry of Western developed countries.
After the influx of Chinese goods into the world market, the prices of a large number of European and American manufacturing products have plummeted.
The development of China's manufacturing industry has become a "price crusher" for developed countries.
So, why has China's manufacturing industry been able to rise rapidly in a short period of time, and has brought such a big impact to the Western market?
Demographic dividend
The basic factor for the rise of China's manufacturing industry lies in the huge demographic dividend of the mainland.
China has a population of 1.4 billion, which means that we not only have a very large labor pool, but also a large consumer market.
After the reform and opening up, Western developed countries saw these two advantages of China and began to invest and build factories in China.
While a large number of foreign-funded enterprises have poured into China, it has also ushered in the spring of China's small and medium-sized investment enterprises.
Because the landing of foreign-funded industries in China will inevitably put forward requirements for supporting processing industries and service industries.
The group that undertook this part of the industry is the first batch of small and medium-sized private enterprises in China.
So since the eighties and nineties of the last century, China has perfectly undertaken the industrial transfer from the Western world, just like Japan and Singapore, and the manufacturing industry has risen rapidly.
After China became a member of the WTO in the new century, China's market was further opened, and foreign capital entered China more and more frantically.
No matter how much foreign capital comes in, China's huge labor force and market will always absorb it.
China's young and middle-aged labor force has at least 300 million to 400 million people, more than the United States and Japan combined.
In addition, in the early stage of Western industrial transfer, the requirements for the quality of labor were low, and most of the jobs provided by enterprises and factories were simple processing and assembly posts, which catered to the low quality of China's labor force at that time.
Not only that, but labor costs in China were low until 2010.
Because of the huge labor base in China, it can continuously deliver labor for enterprise factories, wave after wave, and another batch will immediately fill the vacancy.
It is precisely because of this that foreign-funded enterprises will continue to invest in China.
It is true that in the early days of China's undertaking of Western industrial transfer, most of the work undertaken by China was to assemble products and lack technical content, and it was even called the "world assembly workshop" for a time.
Most of the profits from goods exported abroad also flow into the pockets of developed countries in the West.
But it is these labor-intensive, low-end manufacturing industries that have put China's manufacturing industry on the right track and begun to rise.
Therefore, in the 30 years from the 80s to 2011, China's demographic factors have always maintained a positive impact on economic growth.
Moreover, the per capita wage level of China's labor force has never exceeded the GDP growth rate.
In this way, China's manufacturing products can always maintain low labor costs, gradually improve the export competitiveness in the international market, and promote the sustainable development of the manufacturing industry.
Today's strong whole-industry manufacturing chain in China is the result of Taoguang's obscurity and accumulation of strength in the early years.
China's strong whole-industry manufacturing chain
In September 2019, the United Nations Global Manufacturing Production Report pointed out that China has become the only country in the world with a full range of industrial industries.
The delivery of C919 large passenger aircraft, 45 national advanced manufacturing clusters, 100 small and medium-sized characteristic industrial groups, and China's shield machine have been the first in sales for 5 consecutive years...
All these brilliant achievements show that China has built the world's most complete and developed industrial manufacturing system.
Today, the output of more than 220 kinds of Chinese-made products ranks first in the world, which can be described as the only one in the world.
After years of development, China's manufacturing industry has steadily accounted for 30% of the world's total, ranking first in the world for 13 consecutive years.
At the same time, China's entire industrial chain has shown strong resilience.
Take, for example, China's automotive industry.
In April 2022, during the impact of the global epidemic, China quickly built a coordination platform for the supply chain of the automotive industry chain and established an early warning mechanism for auto parts inventory to ensure the stable operation of the industrial chain.
Because of this, China's automobile production and sales were able to achieve good results of 27.021 million and 26.864 million units at the moment of the epidemic, with a year-on-year increase of 3.4% and 2.1% respectively.
The strong resilience of the automotive industry is a microcosm of the development of China's manufacturing industry.
At present, the supply of the global manufacturing industry chain is facing two major challenges.
The first is the continuous increase in the governance deficit of the global industrial and supply chains.
The supply chain bullying carried out by the U.S. government has increased the uncertainty and instability of the industrial and supply chains.
As a complex economic network, the stability of the global industrial chain is mainly affected by three factors, namely, the key nodes, the structure of the network itself, and the ability of network security relations.
The U.S. strategy of bullying supply chains has had a serious negative impact on all three.
The Americans are trying to suppress the further rise of China's entire industrial chain and dominate the global industrial division of labor by controlling the operation of the industrial chain and developing technology.
The second problem faced by the global manufacturing industry chain is the increased risk of supply chain jamming and chain breakage.
This situation will become a major obstacle to global economic recovery and prosperity, and will have a significant impact on the stability of the global industrial chain in the long term.
But for China, the world's factory and the world's second-largest economy, the mainland's position in the global industrial chain is still strong.
By improving the level of opening up to the outside world and lifting restrictions on foreign investment in the manufacturing industry, China has not only enhanced its advantages in the entire industrial chain, but also further consolidated the stability of the global industrial and supply chains.
The Americans' methods have been perfectly resolved by China's manufacturing industry, and now the development momentum of the mainland's entire industrial chain is still strong, and it has even become a "price crusher" in the Western world, which is the best embodiment.
epilogue
Since the reform and opening up, it has only been more than 40 years.
China's manufacturing industry from the beginning of the poor, white, nothing, to the world's first, this is inseparable from the huge population advantage of the Chinese nation, but also inseparable from the development of the whole industry chain on this basis.
Although since 2012, the Chinese population dividend has ushered in a turning point, the young and middle-aged labor force population has been reduced, and a new round of industrial transfer has begun.
However, the pain brought about by industrial transfer is bound to prompt China to go all out and make continuous progress in the direction of "intelligent manufacturing in China".
Now, ten years have passed since the decline of Chinese population dividends, but China's manufacturing industry still maintains a strong momentum and competes with the United States in the fields of economy, science and technology, which is enough to show the strength of China's manufacturing industry.
Resources
- Zhu Yining." The "danger" and "opportunity" of the development of "Made in China"[J].Communications World,2017(22):39-40.)
- Liang Da.From big to strong: Where is the "engine" of China's manufacturing industry? Business News,2018(12):116-117.
- HUANG Guangcan,WANG Jue,MA Lili.Research on the upgrading of China's manufacturing industry from the perspective of global value chain——Based on the construction of the whole industry chain[J].Guangdong Social Sciences,2019(01):54-64.)