Why do foreign countries call China the world's manufacturing factory?

At present, among the general consumer goods in the world, from handicrafts to household appliances such as refrigerators and televisions, a large number of goods made in China appear in supermarkets around the world. China's total import and export volume of goods exceeded 500 billion US dollars for the first time, ranking sixth in the world, attracting 46.8 billion US dollars of foreign direct investment, ranking first among all countries and regions in China. Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Metro and other world-renowned multinational retail groups have been increasing their purchasing efforts in China in recent years. So many achievements have amazed some foreign journalists: China has become the "factory of the world"! Many domestic media, experts and some government officials are also "excited", echoing the real estate Winnie the Pooh toys and Jordan air-cushioned sneakers, becoming the processing factory of global high-tech industry and already the manufacturing base of the world. China will rise to become an advanced country with high profits and greatly change the manufacturing mode of China. China seems to have become the "factory of the world" overnight. Facing the quiet and rational thinking of "China is the factory of the world", we might as well analyze one or two. A connotation of "world factory" People are familiar with the term "world factory". /kloc-in the second half of the 0/9th century, modern industry marked by large machinery industry was the birthplace of machinery industry. It opened the way with a strong ship and a strong gun, destroyed the checkpoints of one underdeveloped country after another with cheap goods, and lured many countries into the supply of raw materials and labor in Britain. Many large-scale manufactured goods can be produced more efficiently in Britain, which is more competitive than any other country and has foreign competitors in the commercial, financial and political fields. British products once dominated the world trade pattern, monopolized the world industrial production and sales market, and led the development trend of modern industry. Britain, which accounts for only about 2% of the world's population, has always held the world's 1/3- 1/2 industrial production and world 1/5- 1/4 trade in its own hands. No country can compete with Britain for the world-recognized "world factory". In the 20th century, the British Empire gradually declined, and the United States, Germany, Japan and other countries came from behind, replacing Britain as the historical experience of industrial development in Britain and Japan. We can feel that the so-called "world factory" is a country's manufacturing industry and has become the base of the world market. Its main features are: a number of enterprise groups and a series of products occupy an important position in the world market. Their production capacity, new product development and management level and market share have become the vanguard of similar enterprises and industries in the world, and they have relatively many registered patents, which directly affect or even determine the relationship between supply and demand, price trend and future development trend of the world market: export trade with manufactured goods as the main body has become one of the major trading countries; Always stand at the forefront of scientific research and development in the world, master all kinds of new manufacturing technologies, and lead the world economy and technology. The "world factory" can be understood from three aspects: first, for a period of time, the country's manufacturing production has a comparative advantage over other countries, and it does not necessarily need to have absolute advantages, production scale and import and export countries. Second, unlike industrialization, it is a special phenomenon in a special country. Most developed countries have experienced the process of industrialization, but not every country can start the process of industrialization before other countries. This priority made it play the role of "world factory" in the early days of the world industrial revolution. Third, its innovative products, or innovative production organization and management. In short, a country that becomes a "world factory" should be able to promote the continuous improvement and decline of its manufacturing productivity and the rise of its international competitiveness. Judging from historical experience, to become a "world factory" must meet the following conditions: First, the comparative advantage of production factors. Factories are inseparable from labor and capital, relatively cheap and abundant labor, advanced technology and high-quality human resources, and needed raw materials, among which sufficient capital is essential to become a "world factory". The second is the market environment open to the outside world. The integration of a country's economy into the world economy and its opening to the outside world bring about the free flow of capital and technology. Only an open market for raw materials, industrial products and even technology can ensure the normal operation of the "world factory". The third is financial support. Finance is an important propeller for the development of the "world factory". With strong financial strength and a solid foundation of "world factory", it is easier to introduce new capabilities. The "world factory" must be able to effectively promote technological innovation and transform technology into real productive forces. Fifth, the government's effective support policies. Policies such as encouraging production industry assistance will help establish the status of "world factory". China's manufacturing industry as a whole is not a "world factory". Undeniably, China's economic growth in the past 20 years mainly depends on the growth of manufacturing industry. Since the reform and opening up, the added value of China's manufacturing industry has remained above 40% in domestic production; Half of the fiscal revenue comes from manufacturing; The manufacturing industry has absorbed a large number of employed people; Since the 1990s, manufacturing exports have been maintained at nearly 3/4 of foreign exchange earnings. Whether from the perspective of the proportion of manufacturing industry in GDP and fiscal revenue, or from the perspective of expanding employment and maintaining social stability, the main body and pillar of manufacturing industry. For a long time, China's economy will have to be driven by manufacturing. Although China has become a big manufacturing country, the problem is that the products produced in China are few in variety, low in grade, low in added value and technical content. We believe that although the published white paper mentioned for the first time that China is becoming a "factory of the world" and there are voices of approval in China, China is not a "factory of the world" at present. It is too early to say that "China is the workshop of the world" for the following reasons. -China's GDP has exceeded the trillion-dollar mark, and its economic aggregate has jumped to the sixth place in the world, but its share in the world economic aggregate is only a little more than 3%. It has reached 500 billion US dollars, making it the sixth largest trading country in the world, but only accounting for 3.2% of the total world trade. 200 1 None of China's top 500 enterprises is a real manufacturing industry.

-The proportion of China's industrial output value in the world is not large enough, and the output of industrial products is large, but there are few varieties and low grades. The United States ranks first, with manufacturing accounting for 15% of the world, and China ranks fourth in the world, accounting for about 5%. Take the output of steel as an example. China's steel output ranks first in the world, but there are few low-grade buildings and the steel trade deficit is large. Imported products are mainly high-grade plates used in IT industry and automobile industry. In recent years, China's IC trade deficit has reached10 billion. Although a large number of electronic products are produced and exported, their core components and high value-added integrated circuits mainly rely on imports. The main reason for the low grade of industrial products is that the intermediate ability is still very poor and the independent innovation ability is not strong. In the past 20 years, China's economy has developed greatly, but the original products of China enterprises are relatively insufficient. -Labor-intensive products are the bulk products exported by China, and China has become a major clothing exporter in the world. However, China's clothing industry still lacks the international market. Many famous brands in the world are produced by China enterprises, but they are sold in the international market under the name of foreign trademark and foreign brands. Although these export products are branded as China species, the design, sales market and even many raw materials are from foreign customers. -China's traditional industries have broad prospects for development. If we face up to the present situation of our country, proceed from the national conditions and seize the opportunity of industrial structure reform in western countries, the development and transformation of some traditional industries with market advantages have been ignored under the impact of the wave of high-tech development in recent years, while the development of high-tech faces the misunderstanding of attaching importance to business but neglecting scientific research, ignoring independent development and ignoring manufacturing. —— among the top 200 foreign trade enterprises in China in 20001,the top three are three foreign trade agencies in Guangdong province, with export amounts of 6.2 billion US dollars, 6/kloc-0 billion US dollars and 3.76 billion US dollars respectively, accounting for15 of the total export value of the top 200 enterprises, and the production enterprise with the largest export amount has just exceeded 2 billion US dollars. In particular, 200 4% of foreign trade is realized through processing trade. In the list of the top 200 foreign trade enterprises, most of them are branches established by famous multinational companies in China, which are large enterprises with international competitiveness. Because the manufacturing enterprises in China are often in the last link of the production chain of multinational companies, the present situation of low added value of production needs to be changed urgently. According to the conditions of "world factory", China has become one of the world's manufacturing powers only in labor-intensive industries such as textiles, clothing and daily necessities, and technology-intensive assembly and processing industries such as household appliances and computer parts, but its core technologies are still in the forefront, and it does not have the scale and level to become a "world factory". The characteristics of foreign trade reflect that China is not a "world factory". The development of China's foreign trade is gradual and has made remarkable achievements. It has the characteristics of vertical advancement, incremental reform and pilot advancement. Similar to the process of reform and marketization, the initial motivation of China's foreign trade sector reform is to encourage exports, so as to support the introduction of advanced technology and equipment, improve the scope of foreign trade enterprises' mandatory plans to reduce foreign trade, expand local foreign trade autonomy, reserve foreign exchange of enterprises and give local opportunities to engage in foreign trade. With the independent economic benefits of the allocation of production factors, in order to attract more resources in the competition with other places, the industrial structure is "lightened" according to the principle of comparative advantage of production factors. This kind of watch has the characteristics of "short flat and fast" and "two ends out", and the processing trade has developed rapidly. Many manufacturing industries in China are conducted in the form of processing trade, and the real processing fees are very small. In fact, in the huge export volume, it is still concentrated in labor-intensive high-end products and large importers of natural resources, and has not formed a monopoly on high value-added manufacturing. In the last link of the regional "production chain", China imports product parts, but exports the last link. Therefore, China's share in developed markets has exploded, which is actually double counting. Because China's imports from its trading partners and China's foreign trade development and trading partners in China have achieved a "* * * win-win", consumers benefit from lower commodity prices in China, while the above characteristics of other countries in the world benefiting from China's market trade are far from the conditions of "world factory". Although finished products have replaced primary products in China's export trade, accounting for more than 80%, a large proportion of them rely on imported parts and technologies for assembly or feed processing. At present, the output of several household appliances in China is leading the world, but we should also realize that we should not only look at what China has produced, but also look at what its foreign trade products are. Capital-intensive products do not mean that China is a huge economic entity with moderate openness, and its dependence on exports and imports is around 20% respectively. This means that 80% of the domestic market demand depends on domestic production to support and attach importance to the development of foreign trade relations, but the vast majority of automobiles, machinery, computers and electronic parts will still be produced in China, which does not mean that China's foreign trade, as a "world factory", still has two defects: one is insufficient total volume. According to statistics, the global sales of multinational retail groups that entered the world's top 500 last year exceeded the proportion of products by less than 2%, and the proportion of China's products in the world market is far from that of countries that used to be called "world factories". Secondly, the chain with insufficient technical level is mostly at the low end, and about half of the export value is realized through processing trade. At many procurement meetings, many buyers of multinational groups are looking for manufacturers with technical drawings in one hand. Last year, the global DVD production was about 30 million, of which China produced more than 6.5438+0.4 million. However, the key technology of DVD is not in China's hands, so there is an intellectual property dispute between China and foreign technology developers. China unswervingly implements the basic policy of opening to the outside world, and its total foreign trade keeps rising, but it is one of the few countries where both import and export have maintained double-digit growth. The overall trade surplus is very small and has fluctuated continuously in recent years. At present, China's trade surplus is only equivalent to 1% to 2.5% of GDP. Judging from the expansion of China's foreign trade ports and the increase of foreign exchange reserves, it will gradually shift from paying too much attention to foreign exchange earning through export to the balance of foreign trade import and export. China is not only trying its best to expand its exports, but also opening its market to the world. Therefore, the basic feature of China's foreign trade development is that China is far from the "world factory". The gap between the four micro-subjects reflects that China is not a "world factory". In the process of economic globalization, the development of the world economy is increasingly interdependent. China's economy is indeed developing rapidly, but developed countries and their multinational companies have not stopped taking the initiative. Foreign capital transfer is only low-end labor-intensive industries. Multinational companies move their factories and even R&D centers to Chinese mainland. Their coping strategy is to master the formulation of rules through mastering the core technologies, and then firmly grasp the initiative of competition through the formulation of rules. In terms of technology, there is still a big gap between China's manufacturing industry and foreign investment. As far as color TV is concerned, key components such as flat glass and electron gun depend on the home appliance giants in the importing country. Not a level, no enterprise can achieve the level of Sony in Japan. After China's entry into WTO, there is a big gap between China enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises in industries, fields, links and markets with high technology and knowledge intensity, complex brand value and complex management organization. For example, in the field of high-grade textile fabrics, domestic enterprises are weak in competitiveness due to insufficient understanding of technology; In the computer and home appliance industry, the main competitive factors of China enterprises are assembly and domestic sales market, while domestic enterprises are not strong in basic and important application fields. In terms of financing, domestic enterprises have the following characteristics compared with foreign enterprises: First, there are few financing methods, and there are few mergers, reorganizations and acquisitions of domestic enterprises, which are very common. Second, there are few financing channels. Domestic non-state-owned economy and private hands have a lot of capital, but they have not entered the financing of enterprises. The market is not open enough to enter, which virtually narrows the financing channels. In terms of investment, the world economy is generally depressed, which has also had a certain impact on the growth of manufacturing industry, and the investment risk has increased. At present, China's manufacturing industry is completely market-oriented, the domestic market maturity, macro-policy and economic system are in the process of adjustment and change, the investment income of enterprises is uncertain, and the international competitiveness of enterprises with capital investment is high. In terms of R&D and management, the overall level of R&D investment in China includes manpower, material resources and financial resources, which is far from the competitiveness of developed countries, and this influence will increase with time. Management is the weakest link in the operation of enterprises in China, and the management system and mode of domestic enterprises are still more or less left, which is very fatal to the development of enterprises. If this situation is not changed, the competitiveness of enterprises will be greatly reduced. Some people regard the rise of IT industry as the basic basis for China to become a "world factory", so we might as well make a final analysis. With the upgrading of international new technology industry, all kinds of data are quite gratifying. But whether IT is hardware or software, or even real IT services, the main market is still made up of foreign manufacturers. All of China are foreign manufacturers, and there were only two domestic software manufacturers before 10; In the hardware market, Intel, New Hewlett-Packard, International Business Machines Corporation, etc. They all crossed $654.38+0 billion early. Even in the personal computer industry, the share of domestic brands is high, but a large part of the sales and profits of each domestic machine are shared by foreign companies. People in the industry generally know that there have been four modes in IT manufacturing industry: OEM, ODM, DMS and EMS. These four modes are gradual and the technical content is gradually improved. One kind of OEM is to do OEM for brand manufacturers. All the designs are owned by others. If there is a problem in manufacturing, we have to go back to the entrusted manufacturer to solve it. ODM (commissioned design and manufacturing) goes further. In addition to manufacturing and processing, it also adds a design link, that is, accepting the entrustment of brand manufacturers and undertaking (design, manufacturing and after-sales service) according to their technical requirements. It integrates design, manufacturing and service, which is equivalent to the brand manufacturer handing over the basic system requirements to the contract manufacturer for their own maintenance. EMS (Engineering, Manufacturing and Service) is a new model. In this mode, brand manufacturers only define product specifications and open up markets, and do the rest. This is the concept of "manufacturing center" with its own core value, which is very different from the early simple OEM processing. And many of our manufacturing enterprises and real "world factories" are by no means simple OEM. In addition, our it enterprises don't have enough profit margin and financing support, and they don't have extra ability to build their own core competitiveness, so that when the enterprise situation changes, foreign companies have a solid capital base. How can China IT enterprises survive in the same bad situation? High quality and low price are the first place for domestic brands to survive.

If the law has accumulated and can't develop continuously, then all the efforts of enterprises in the past are not just the market cultivation and promotion in the early stage. To sum up, we can draw a basic conclusion: it is too early to say that China has become the "factory of the world".