I never realised that China had such domination in other
areas besides EVs, high speed rail system construction, solar panels,
rare earths, car batteries among others, areas that the MSM talks about
almost daily.
TCL, a Chinese Company is a big player in the TV
manufacturing business, outperforming many other world-renowned Japanese
and Korean brands. Price is the factor for its rise, and it beats the
competition using the same modus operandi. That is what having a huge
industrial capacity can do, and TCL is not just any TV manufacturing
outfit producing only TVs. It also produces smartphones, communication
equipment, consumer appliances like air conditioners and consumer
electronics like laptops.
Lenovo, a Chinese computer giant is
also a big player in the laptop business, their 'ThinkPad' overwhelming
other Japanese well-known brands like Toshiba and Fujitsu and even USA
Dell. with pricing also playing a big part. Who would have thought this
was possible a decade or two ago. It was a sector that was untouchable
and dominated by USA and Japanese computer makers.
Now China,
from a nobody, is going to dominate the semiconductor sector as well,
and may even be a big player in lithography machine export. Necessity is
the mother of invention, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the
context of China.
As Boeing self-destruct, China's commercial
jet venture will also gain global acceptance and momentum eventually.
Will China also dominate global aviation is the question. If space
exploration and HSR technological advance is any indication of China's
ability, I would not bet against it. But you can be sure hurdles will be
placed in front of its jet business, like airworthiness certification.
Putting others down so that it can rise is the usual procedure adopted
in the West, not open competition based on merit.
Forget about
the argument that China is using State subsidies to help their
industries. It is an old argument, knowing that the USA had been doing
this for decades on end.
Anonymous
PS. 90% of the world's port cranes are from China. 90% of the world's solar panels are from China. 90% of the wind turbines are also from China.
4 comments:
When China talks about Soft Power, the world probably took it as a joke. What can Soft Power do in a world controlled by the barrel of a gun. And who had the biggest gun? Gunboat diplomacy is obsolete.
Using Soft Power, China need not go to war or put a gun to the head of anyone. China forged closer relationships with the Global South, helping them in infrastructures like airports, ports, reservoirs, railways and housing needs. Now the Anglo-Saxon whites are not laughing anymore, being slowly chased out of Africa, and China is having the last laugh instead. The BRI was another example of Soft Power, benefiting countries in Central Asia and eliciting jealousy from the USA, India and the West.
While the USA and the West were pre-occupied with starting wars, Russia gate, trade wars, and taking their eyes off high tech industries, they realised too late now that China is moving ahead of them, dominating in fields that were the monopoly of the West. The USA probably thought the time frame of 50 years down the road for China to do so is a long way to go and a comforting thought for them, never expecting China to progress so fast in just the past two decades.
The USA is now fighting a losing battle trying to build up its industrial capacity, mostly at the expense of Europe. The USA can draw companies away from Europe, create chip alliances, sanction Chinese products like EVs, solar panels, cranes and build them itself. But the question is - can the USA build them itself and compete against China? The Global South is a big market that the Chinese are more interested in competing in, and can USA products match the Chinese in price alone? What about USA products competing in the Chinese market? The writing is on the wall that such USA ventures of trying to re-industrialise will retake the cake that they have lost is a wet dream.
Aviation will be a long slog. Currently so many of the systems in Comac C919 are not Chinese manufacturer origin. Conceived during the "Global Supply" era, Comac wanted C919 to be a multinational plane but most importantly, they thought it would help in getting US & EU aviation certification. With the current geopolitics, it would be impossible to attain any western aviation certification. Hence, it is my believe that western systems will slowly but surely be replaced with Chinese domestic in the future. Chinese aviation manufacturing is still not fully developed.
Comac was working with Russians on the larger C929 but Russia pulled out recently. No reason given but there was talk of disagreement with the direction each country wanted to take.
Russia has reconfigured all their planes to be fully a Russian system. It wasn't easy but they did it. Russia has a mature aviation manufacturing unlike China. Perhaps the time is right again for C929 to be a joint venture again.
Did you know, Lenovo was previously IBM computers? China Lenovo bought over the PC arm of IBM after IBM kept making loses & put it up for sale.
Today Lenovo has turned the PC company around.
Sorry, if I am not wrong, Lenovo is a Chinese Company founded in 1984 in Beijing by a team of engineers lead by Liu Chuanzhi and Danny Lui. Its original name was 'Legend' and it started as a company specialising in making TVs but later migrating into making computers.
'Think Pad' however was a computer brand that Lenovo bought over from IBM. Correct me if I am wrrong.
Post a Comment