While the rest of world likes to rest on its laurels of bringing out the best product or the best software, you will find that China is innovating at a whole different level. The work ethics, the resources and the resilience of the Chinese has brought them to the pinnacle of what it means to execute tasks efficiently, be it in any field.
To add a bit of history, since economic reforms began in 1978, China has enjoyed rapid growth in exports, which have contributed to the country’s impressive economic growth. Improvements in the quality of China’s workforce, manufacturing technologies, and materials have enabled the country to enter new, more technologically sophisticated industries. The Chinese government has denoted several such industries as strategic, and has employed industrial policies, formal and informal, to foster the development of “national champions.” As part of this strategy, the Chinese government has attempted to induce the transfer of technologies from foreign manufacturers to Chinese companies. To the extent that these policies have been successful, they have accelerated shifts in production and employment from industries located in other countries to China.
Due to this manufacturing growth in the industry, China has brought in some serious numbers. Here a few statistics to watch out for.
- China’s manufacturing enterprise employment has increased every year since 2002 from 85.9 million to 99.0 million in 2009.
- Industrial Production in China increased 6.1 percent in May of 2015 over the same month in the previous year.
- Industrial Production in China averaged 13.07 Percent from 1990 until 2014, reaching an all-time high of 29.40 Percent in August of 1994 and a record low of -21.10 Percent in January of 1990.
- China’s 2009 manufacturing employment was much larger than employment for any other country; for example, manufacturing employment in the United States was only 14.2 million.
While those were the current statistics, here are some general ones.
- 70% of the world’s umbrellas are made in China.
- 60% of the world’s buttons are made in China.
- 9% of Chinese goods sent to the U.S. end up on Wal-Mart’s shelves.
- 72% of U.S. shoes were made in China.
- 85% of all U.S. artificial Christmas lights are made in China.
- 50% of U.S. kitchen appliances are made in China.
- 50% of U.S. toys are made in China.
These numbers are no longer the same once you’ve glanced through them. They’re shifting gears every moment. Are you?