SarahBell Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 china is making saris which means Indians are being squeezed out of the market. India's weavers want trade exemptions from the liberalisation of imports. Why aren't people in the UK asking for the same thing? Oh because we're not all starving to death because of it yet. As china grows is can only damage other economies in the world. Cheap clothes is great (tesco, asda, primark etc) are indicators of the extent of the situation. The less we make in the UK the more likely house prices are to crash, and the economy will slide massively too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest magnoliawalls Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 (edited) There is more than one way of waging war. We are in for some interesting times in the next few years. Edit to add - people who imagine that globalisation is going to make us all richer just do not understand how big China is and how little the Chinese consume on a per capita basis. Edited November 27, 2005 by magnoliawalls Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Darker Law Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 One of my colleagues used to work in a factory producing arabic headscarfs (forget their real name). This factory was in Ayrshire and supplied a lot of countries in the middle east. I thought she was on the wind-up, but no, apparently it was true. I don't think it's there any longer but they survived a while in the face of cheap local competition. Or maybe the Chinese finally got in on the act and were even cheaper than Ayrshire workers. NDL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Europa Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 Why aren't people in the UK asking for the same thing? Because knee-jerk protectionism is rarely a good idea in the long term - it triggers a quid pro quo responce that can be damaging for both sides. Would anyone really like to see the UK excluded from such a fast growing economy? While we are importing a lot of high-volume, low value goods from China, a lot of high value manufactured goods - aero engines, radar equipment, etc - are going in the other direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnlyMe Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 aero engines, radar equipment Yep, the bits that they can't copy........ yet. Europa, Another sector that I keep on highlighting is farming. Yes, the CAP system is hugely expensive and distorted but ont eh hother hand it does cioculate money round the economy and provide not only employment but a better guranatee of supply of food. I think the UK is now 70% self-sufficient in food. Farming is facing some real problems and it looks like the end result is that a lot of it will be shut down. Of course this will never lead to problems where the country will not be able to feed the population - being largely dependent on external supply - no never it can't happen? Just like we could never have a squeeze on power that would cause a disruption in energy supply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
backtoparents Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 Because knee-jerk protectionism is rarely a good idea in the long term - it triggers a quid pro quo responce that can be damaging for both sides. Would anyone really like to see the UK excluded from such a fast growing economy? While we are importing a lot of high-volume, low value goods from China, a lot of high value manufactured goods - aero engines, radar equipment, etc - are going in the other direction. I might add education to the list. btp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
war Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 This screwing goes on in other levels aswell. Being a new super power, we in the west seem to be afraid of China. They seem to be doing things that we cannot think of or even forbidden by us, but easily get away with it. Are we afraid of them? Look at this news item: China defies India, US, EU joint stand on arms embargo to Nepal They are starting to play an alternative Big Brother to the US, it seems. And we want their cheap imports to save some money now ( to regret later). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Europa Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 They are starting to play an alternative Big Brother to the US, it seems. And we want their cheap imports to save some money now ( to regret later). There is not a chance in hell of China rivalling US military hegemony in the next 20 - 30 years. Even the most hysterical US commentators only put Chinese defence spending at USD50 - 70 billion pa; roughly that of the United Kingdom. The US in contrast, will spend, USD500 billion next year; more than the rest of the world combined. Also, China has a massive shortage of modern military hardware and no means of getting it. Genuinely, nothing to fear Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahBell Posted November 27, 2005 Author Share Posted November 27, 2005 They have enough bodies to take up arms and cause a lot of concern. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Europa Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 They have enough bodies to take up arms and cause a lot of concern. I honestly don't think troops on the ground make any difference in an era of network-centric warfare. Really, China is a paper dragon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustrum_ridcully Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 Would anyone really like to see the UK excluded from such a fast growing economy? While we are importing a lot of high-volume, low value goods from China, a lot of high value manufactured goods - aero engines, radar equipment, etc - are going in the other direction. Why do you think they're buying them - so they can copy them. There's a lot of state of the art manufacturing kit going out to China (mainly form Germany, USA... but also the UK) not to be used but to be dismantled and re-engineered so they can make their own (maybe not for export as numerous patents are being violated but certainly for internal use). I remember a colleague from Malaysia who told me they been doing this for years and that was about 3 years ago now. Why do you think the Chinese bought Rover, not just for the brand names but for the BMW technology used in the Rover 75 (and the German/Japanese stuff in the Rover 25). Honda knew what was going to happen so when MGR went bankrupt they marched in and took all the designs info for the Rover 400/45 (the old Honda Civic) to protect their IPs. The Asians sussed out a longtime ago what the Chinese are upto, but the Europeans and Americans are probably only just catching on (they just saw China as a market they could exploit). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duplex Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 The low labour costs of China will have a deflationary effect on western economies. I believe that we will see a rise in incomes in China but a fall in incomes in the west as an averaging process takes place. Globalisation and incomes growth are central to the near to long term prospects of the property market, (if you believe that the price of shelter is determined by prevailing local incomes) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Europa Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 Why do you think they're buying them - so they can copy them. There's a lot of state of the art manufacturing kit going out to China (mainly form Germany, USA... but also the UK) not to be used but to be dismantled and re-engineered so they can make their own Take your point - but I think the West (the US in particular) has wised up to this. The US military is well aware that Chinese soldiers are bombing around in carbon-copies of the Hummvee jeep. But there is still a market for kit that is harder to reverse-engineer - dual-use equipment like radars, etc. In the longer term, I think the IP issues will be overcome - it is increasingly becoming an issue in Sino-European negotiations Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oracle Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 There is more than one way of waging war. We are in for some interesting times in the next few years. Edit to add - people who imagine that globalisation is going to make us all richer just do not understand how big China is and how little the Chinese consume on a per capita basis. you have it right but not for the right reasons!!! china is not there just to produce stuff for us.the whole point of getting china started was to create new consumers......the manufacturing sid of things was just the seed before consumerism took hold. ...the US is tired,so US companies made inroads into china/india to replace the knackered ones US and UK have.....but it takes a little time to bed down.....same thing with japan....BIG consumer market there but needs a bit of a kick in the pants to get going after 15 years of deflation. ......means they take up the slack while US/UK domestic goes to the dogs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theChuz Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 There is more than one way of waging war. We are in for some interesting times in the next few years. Edit to add - people who imagine that globalisation is going to make us all richer just do not understand how big China is and how little the Chinese consume on a per capita basis. How very Sun Tzu of you maggie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homeless Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 There is not a chance in hell of China rivalling US military hegemony in the next 20 - 30 years. Even the most hysterical US commentators only put Chinese defence spending at USD50 - 70 billion pa; roughly that of the United Kingdom. The US in contrast, will spend, USD500 billion next year; more than the rest of the world combined. Also, China has a massive shortage of modern military hardware and no means of getting it. Genuinely, nothing to fear but thats because all the wages and materials are cheaper in china, chinese soldier probably costs a 10th of an american one in wages and materials. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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