It comes with great relevance that right around the time I write this book review about The China Price, the whole Foxconn suicide debacle in China is going down. For those unfamiliar, Taiwanese-owned electronics manufacturer Foxconn has entered headlines for a number of suicides in its China factories. What’s the Western World’s relation to Foxconn? Good chance a consumer electronic you’ve used today may have passed through Foxconn, a notable manufacturer of Apple products.

I’ve viewed the landscape of my brethren to the North (although I am writing this halfway across the Pacific) with great interest. The enormous wealth that pours into Hong Kong each day courtesy of affluent Mainlanders is without its price on so any levels. The convoluted and intertwined socioeconomic problems leaves me thinking where does one start in trying to sort things out? China’s meteoric rise thanks to a massive export economy comes on the backs of the tireless work of its factory workers. But what is the total cost of their contributions to China’s global success?

I picked up The China Price by chance while at the book store awhile back. I never really keep tabs on any writers but the title seemed interesting enough. The book’s premise revolves around a number of first-hand accounts from Alexandra Harney who’s spent a great deal of time in the China region. With a focus on the production and manufacturing side of things, it’s all a harrowing tale of the current (albeit changing) landscape that the backbone of China endures all in the hopes of achieving a better life. Many different elements form the uneasy environment and have all the makings of a major social upheaval… maybe not now but just like that package of ramen noodles you’ve tossed it, the boil-over point is on its way.

At the root of it all, for every China scandal you hear, I think it’s all too simple to feel as though the blame lays solely on the shoulders of the Chinese people. I too maintained this ignorance for some time, always painting the Chinese people with the same paintbrush of greed. But for every tale lies a second side of the story and that of foreign buyer driving hard bargains. The perpetuation of lower prices has created an uneasy and unsustainable business. It’s entirely unfair in which the likes of your Wal-Marts assume and fully believe you can achieve lower prices each season. The competitive nature and the large market of manufacturers post-economic turndown that China yields makes threats very credible of walking away from the deal table in search of a cheaper supplier who WILL cut corners to fulfill that order.

Not to go on some further tangent, it’s the foreign companies that push the agenda of consumption. Chinese brands aren’t spewing out 50 different TV models each season (they are merely copying them haha) in hopes of you enticing you to upgrade. Cell phone companies are simply following consumer demand with new models each quarter. Us as a global society is very much part of the problem with our consumption habits. As you take a look at the whole puzzle and not just the segment of China, you begin to see the difficulties and intricacies that make up “The China Price”.

I won’t go too much into detail about all the factors that trouble Chinese migrant workers and how the supply chain works, although I had originally intended to. I will highlight some interesting aspects of production in China and what changes are on the horizon on a social level.

While many foreign companies working in China have begun to stress human rights, I still think that some promote this aspect more in hopes of developing a positive brand identity. This is probably stressed much more so than the actual fundamental belief that at the other end of the sewing machine lies an over-worked and under-paid worker that deserves a better life. Developing social programs, paying adequate wages and keeping workers happy all add to the total cost of their final product. However conversely, it comes with great interest that while changes at the governmental level look to create more hospitable conditions, there are often times where migrant workers DO want to work more. Their whole purpose is to accrue as much relative wealth as possible to turn the corner and improve their quality of life post-factory life.

Shrouded in relative secrecy, in comes the “shadow factory”. Something that technically doesn’t exist within a production company’s profile. Here shadow factories serve as a compliment to the front-end factory which allows for a number of different interests. Here you can pay less overtime, you can worry less about working conditions and generally run operations on a threshold to entice workers to work for you. Since the factory doesn’t exist in the legal sense, you’re free to run it however so away from any particular regulations. While inspectors and foreign production heads sign-off and approve of the front-end factory, much of the work may be done unseen. It must also be noted that not all the intents of shadow factories are malicious, some factory owners mention that their place is very much needed based on difficult demands from buyers, orders that simply cannot be filled within the governmental regulations or general production prices. The China Price was written a few years ago, so I’m not sure how much as changed, but regardless, I can’t assume that the shadow factories have totally been eradicated.

With a large migrant workforce (although reports say this should eventually change), there’s always somebody waiting in the wings to take a spot working under bad conditions for less money. But a positive externality from years of marginalization have been increased education. In a world where achieving justice required an expert knowledge of a complicated bureaucratic system, the voices of millions simply cannot be ignored. Those who have succumbed health problems associated with factory life have taken it upon themselves as crusaders. With years of poor working conditions quickly manifesting itself over health problems in an increasingly large demographic, this coupled with a health system of questionable sustainability is sure to lead to problems. It may be a case of too little too late for workers who simply entered the coal mines and factories at the wrong time and had to endure the hardships of poor health and non-existent worker rights for the incoming generation of workers to enjoy better conditions.

All too often China has been associated with low quality production and goods. It’s a tough stigma to shake as all too often, we dwell on the negatives. But for a growing number of factory owners, pushing their own agenda of quality and working with companies that understand that good quality requires a higher price, this has enabled them to stay competitive when low-quality factories must compete with other cut-throat factories for jobs. At the middle and higher-end of the spectrum, the competition is much lower while production costs for these foreign entities is still cheaper than domestic product on. It must be thoroughly stressed, China has the means to create relatively high quality products, but often things get lost in translation when it comes to ensuring production follows a certain route. If you’re willing to coach the factory through it, I’m confident you still produce a high-quality product.

While the focus is on China, “The China Price” is really much more than a nationalistic problem with ample amounts of spill-over throughout the global economy. The sensitive nature of China’s socioeconomic fabric surely has a bearing on both China’s economical and societal identity throughout the world. However, having said that, what is now a Chinese problem could very much be __________ (insert developing country) problem in the next few years as production moves to the next cheap(er) production destination place.

At the completion of The China Price, you should come to the realization the complexities of China’s problem. I think one thing to stress that this is far from a self-inflicted problem on behalf of China and that it does involve other parties. The solution seems out of sight, but potentially achievable if one can properly filter and divide the problems into easier to tackle sets. I obviously don’t have this knowledge or skill-set, but as optimistic as I’d like to be, the coming together of so many internal (within China) and external factors (outside of China) make me thing nothing short of a massive border-less effort can help augment the life of China’s backbone.