Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Industrialisation of China
- Industry
- 30 years - gone from mainly
agricultural economy to strong
manufacturing economy. 3rd largest
economy in world after US + Japan.
- % of GDP from agriculture
fell between 1978 + 2004
from 30% to less than 15%
- Same time - number of products
manufactured increased rapidly e.g.
4000 colour TVs made in 1978
compared to 75 million in 2004.
- Manufactures many products e.g.
clothes, computers + toys. Lots of
TNCs have factories there e.g.
NIKE, Hewlett-Packard + Disney.
- Cheap Labour
- No single min wage - different all over country.
- Makes labour much cheaper
than other countries e.g. UK -
min wage is £990 per month.
- Long working hours
- Chinese law - people only allowed to
work 40 hours per week - maximum
36 hours overtime per work.
- Not always enforced - e.g.
manufacturing company, foxconn,
- some of factory workers have
done 80 hours overtime per
month to maximise production.
- Laxer health + safety regulations
- Health + safety laws similar to other countries - not
heavily enforced e.g. over past decade, 100s of
factory workers treated for mercury poisoning
despite strict laws on working with toxic materials.
- Prohibition of strikes
- Workers can strike but All-Chinese Federation of
Trade Unions (ACFTU) - required by law to get people
back to work quickly so productivity is maximised.
- Illegal to join any other union than ACFTU.
- Tax incentives + tax free zones
- Special Economy Zones (SEZs) - offer
tax incentives to foreign businesses.
- Foreign manufacturers pay no tax for 1st
2 years in zone, 7.5% for next 3 years,
then 15% then on. (Still half of usual 30%
tax elsewhere in China.)
- Shenzen - one of most succesful SEZs -
$30 billion of investment by TNCs.
Factories in Shenzen make products for
companies like Wal-Mart, Dell + IBM.