For Americans who think China just makes toys, tools and cell phones, Eagle reporter Alan Bjerga’s series on China’s burgeoning aircraft industry should provide a wake-up call. The Chinese have ambitious plans to move into commercial jet parts, modification, assembly and other manufacturing work that directly competes with Wichita jobs.
True, despite their cheap labor costs, the Chinese are still far behind in technology, productivity and other areas, say experts. But the Chinese are sending the unmistakable message that they intend to be players in this industry, sooner rather than later.
China recently surpassed the United States to become the world’s largest supplier of information technology. What’s especially worrisome is the potential for a technology and skills transfer to the Chinese that they will use to develop their own aircraft industry.
Some globalization of labor is inevitable, but America must zealously guard its intellectual property and know-how, a main source of economic strength and national security. And Wichita should redouble efforts to upgrade worker skills and think strategically, even in the midst of an upswing in local aircraft jobs.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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11 Comments
America’s “intelectual property and know-how” is on sale at WSU (and colleges accross the nation ) For a mere $384 per credit hour
Instead of talk about guarding and holding on to things we better start talking about actually competing
So what are your kids studdying in college? English lit? or IT?
And here in Wichita we made the decision to eviscervate Vo-Tech. The Chambers of Commerce oppose spending on education and training. So, how will we compete?
It’s going to be China’s century. Step aside.
Everything is going to China, thanks to Unions. If there were no unions at the aicraft plants here, this place would be booming with more work. But the unions are killing our manufacturing base.
a TECH center is not the answer. We can not compete in the LABOR market. Our standrard of living is simply to comfortable and to far beyond than the countries competing for work. Traning to Bend sheet metal or turning a wrench takes months, not years to learn, and chinese can be trained just as easily. If you want to be difficult to replace you must have a skill that is difficult to train.
Meanwhile universities are full of international students who taking our most valuable training and research and going back to thier home countries after graduation.
If Randy really wants a news story, go up to WSU and conduct a poll of international students by dicipline and ask how many plan on staying in the USA after graduation….I bet 80% will be going back to asia
Well dr,We can either raise their standard of living, or they will inevitably bring ours down.
Yeah, it’s the unions fault that Americans won’t work for a bowl of rice every day.
Todd,Maybe it’s the unions fault that Asians do. Unions have gotten complacent and forgotten how tough they had to be in the early, dangerous days of the labor movement here. They need to get off their collective duffs and fight for and win worker rights worldwide, and then there’ll be no incentive to ship jobs overseas!
Jed – I’ll bet the Chinese government will just love to have union activists move into their country. The over/under on how quickly they’d be executed is 2 days.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, the simple fact is that American corporations will be moving operations to China because it is the only way the Chinese will buy their goods.
Todd,What we think of as our ideal, that government is by the consent of the governed, is actually a political reality. It takes time, but no government can stand forever if it doesn’t have the confidence of the people. That’s what happened to the robber barons, and it’s what happened in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.Unionism had a very rough start in this country, with organizers frequently beaten, jailed and killed, but it won the support of the working people and grew powerful (some say too powerful). With the support of world opinion, it could happen in China, Bangla Desh, Malaysia or any other place where goods are manufactured.We discovered that well-paid workers became good customers, and as a country we prospered because of it.. China, et al. will also find that their workers, when paid what they deserve, will become a huge market for their own goods. Sure, there will be difficult times and executions and imprisonments, just like there were here, but the struggle will eventually succeeed, if the world watches.
Jed–your analysis is right on target. This is why the US is running a unbelievably HUGE trade deficit with China.
Their workers can’t afford to buy any of our stuff. They can’t afford to buy the stuff they themselves make.
It’s basically the same problem the British Empire ran into when they wanted to buy Chinese tea but the Chinese didn’t want/couldn’t afford anything the British manufactured.
The balance of trade got so out of whack, the Brits eventually hit upon the opium trade to put the Chinese into their debt. When the Chinese outlawed opium, the British just ran their warships up the Pearl River in Canton and levelled the place.
Kinda like us in Iraq actually . . .
Galahad,Yeah, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Was just watching a bio of Napoleon, and was reminded that he became emperor due to increased powers he requested to fight terrorism. Deja vu?