The US economy has not been too healthy for quite some time. Sackings, redundancies and closures of entire factories capture headlines in the newspapers daily. Of course, it is all the fault of China, the workshop of the world.

Jacob von Bisterfeld, the author of the article.

The New York Times of September 13 had this to say:

"Ask laid-off workers what is to blame for the woes, and they point to imports, low wages in China, the strong dollar, production moving overseas.

"In the past three years, Stark County, which includes Canton, has lost 3,500 factory jobs, more than 10 per cent of the total. Two years ago in Massillon, just west of Canton, the lone rubber glove factory in the nation shut.

"Last year, Hess Management of Austin, Texas, shut the Danner Press printing plant, costing 325 workers their jobs, and 700 steelworkers at Republic Technologies on the east end of town lost their jobs when Republic filed for bankruptcy."

Sad news? Certainly!

But then, it had to come. For nearly half a century, the all-powerful trade unions held manufactures over a barrel and demanded excessive wages for relatively unskilled jobs.

Then there were the ridiculous demarcations of jobs: a plumber was not to do any carpentry work even it constituted only a small fraction of the job. Likewise, he/she was not to connect an electric wire: that was the prerogative of a member of the electrician's union. Cleaning up afterwards was also a no-no: the jobs of the cleaners had to be protected too and so it often comes to pass in the US that five people are required to do a job that can be done by one. And if the job takes a few hours to travel to, then five people waste almost a whole day or more instead of one.

Familiar cliches brandished by American politicians are that Chinese factories are sweatshops, that the workers are underpaid and overworked, that social benefits are non-existent.

Really?

Why is it that most of those US journalists and politicians who do make it to China, manage to finish up in the wrong factory? Factories such as Intel in Shanghai, Kuhnezug Cranes, GM, Volkswagen and thousands of other factories feature working conditions similar to, if not better, than in the US.

Of course, politicians and journalists much prefer to search for some dilapidated old factories in China. Yes, they DO exist, but are getting fewer and fewer.

The next carnival of a presidential election in the US is nigh and is likely to substantially revolve around an "Ogre" called China.

Most of us realize that a good thing cannot last for ever and the members of the powerful trade unions who have held whole countries to ransom in Germany, in France and, indeed, the US, are now tasting the bitter fruit of the seeds they have been sowing for 50 years or more and are finally getting their just deserts for coercing, cajoling and blackmailing wing-clipped employers and governments into submission. Manufacturers and investors everywhere are now voting with their feet and are stampeding to China.

As the American election campaigns heat up, China better duck for cover or better, organize a lobby/publicity group in America to rebut politically motivated scapegoating of China.

Do not expect American politicians to invent any more intelligent sanctions. Yes, China, brace thyself.

(Shanghai Star by Jacob von Bisterfeld)

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