As the world impatiently awaits financial relief from Wall Street and Capitol Hill, and eyes gaze east toward the People’s Republic of China to see what they will do in the name of debt, it’s worth noting that Walt Disney was right when he called this planet a small world. You only need to look at the labels on your clothing to realize that probably 90% of them were imprinted in China. I know mine are.
And don’t forget with the recent Beijing Olympics and its numerous bloggers, China is fresh in many of our minds.
In recent days, I corresponded on Twitter and e-mail with Shel Israel (co-writer of “Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk With Customers“) about his pending trip with The China Business Network to speak to Chinese bloggers in Guangzhou.
This perked me.
Loyal readers of my blog may recall, through bits here and there, that I visited China in May 2006 as part of a Global MBA elective class through Suffolk University’s Sawyer School of Management, where I studied for a master’s in public administration. One of the earliest stories I published online was how I was victimized through a Wangfujing Street tea scam and was busted in Beijing.
Soon after my return from three weeks in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong, I penned a travel essay for the Boston Globe on my quest for a Canton connection.
Canton, the old name for the busting megalopolis of Guangzhou, is the scene of the 104th China Import and Export Fair which continues this month.
Looking at statistics from last spring’s fair, can you think of any other expo in the world with over 42,000 booths representing 18,000 Chinese and 500 international exhibitors who interacted with 192,000 overseas buyers, and transacted over USD$38 million in business?
I’d like to share with you my first SlideShare file of a presentation I gave to my class in April 2006, before I left for China. (SlideShare is best described as YouTube for PowerPoint.)
As you can see, this is about the Ministry of Commerce, which sets the rules for every article of clothing you own that was made with the world’s cheapest labor and the finest silk. (It’s debatable if Chinese or Italian silk is finer, but I bought a few Chinese silk ties from a marketplace, so I’m biased.)
On the agency acronyms:
- MOFTEC = Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation
- MOFERT = Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade (renamed to MOFTEC in 1993)
- SETC = State Economic and Trade Commission
- SDPC = State Development Planning Commission
- MOFCOM = Ministry of Commerce
On the ministers, on the top is the Minister of Commerce, Bo Xilai; and below him are the Vice Ministers. The third row begins with the Vice Minister in charge of Discipline Inspection, and to his right are three Assistant Ministers.
It’s worth noting the sole female minister is Ma Xiuhong, appointed to the ministry in 2002. Previously, she served 3 years as assistant minister of MOFTEC. She entered the Chinese Communist Party in 1975, and is university educated. She was born in 1948, is of Han nationality, and is a native of Tang County in Hebei Province.
Of the 190 exported brands listed, I sourced it from an assortment of local and provincial government officials, Chambers of Commerce, etc.
- An export brand development fund was established to support export enterprises in developing their own brands.
- The enterprises on the key export brand list are given priority in export quotas, government purchase orders, discounted loans for technological transformation projects, export product R&D funds and other concessions in financial and insurance arrangements.
- There was a forecast that by 2010, over 40% of export enterprises will have their own brands, the export of own brands will account for over 20% of China’s total exports, and China will have a number of famous own brands of international standing.
The People’s Daily Online, in 2006, wrote:
“This list helps nurture independent brands, enhance the international competitiveness of export products, transform the growth mode of foreign trade and accomplish the shift from a big trading country to a strong one.”
Have you visited China or are familiar with more recent data? Tune in to my next post when I’ll share extracts from a subjective comparison between the U.S. and China that I wrote when I returned home.
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Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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Beijing may be the most recent positive point of reference, but I take it you’ve heard about the melamine in milk scandal, I’m still getting thousands of visitors each day checking out my reporting on that issue. I even saw someone tie it to Halloween candy, but I suspect that was them trying to do an SEO mashup rather than serious journalism…
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