Chinese Food, Chinese Tools, & Now Chinese Bridges? (And Bad Photoshop Too!!)

[Old Moparz]

When I was a kid, I remember the only things that were made in China were fireworks. Years later, as we've all seen, more & more things have the "Made in China" label on it. It's almost impossible to avoid & now, I almost can't believe that a new bridge that's going to be built in California is being made there.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/business/global/26bridge.html?_r=2&hp

I sure hope it's made better than that 250 piece ratchet set I saw at the flea market for $6.00  



Bridge Comes to San Francisco With a Made-in-China Label
By DAVID BARBOZA
Published: June 25, 2011

SHANGHAI — Talk about outsourcing. At a sprawling manufacturing complex here, hundreds of Chinese laborers are now completing work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Next month, the last four of more than two dozen giant steel modules — each with a roadbed segment about half the size of a football field — will be loaded onto a huge ship and transported 6,500 miles to Oakland. There, they will be assembled to fit into the eastern span of the new Bay Bridge. The project is part of China's continual move up the global economic value chain — from cheap toys to Apple iPads to commercial jetliners — as it aims to become the world's civil engineer.

The assembly work in California, and the pouring of the concrete road surface, will be done by Americans. But construction of the bridge decks and the materials that went into them are a Made in China affair. California officials say the state saved hundreds of millions of dollars by turning to China.

"They've produced a pretty impressive bridge for us," Tony Anziano, a program manager at the California Department of Transportation, said a few weeks ago. He was touring the 1.2-square-mile manufacturing site that the Chinese company created to do the bridge work. "Four years ago, there were just steel plates here and lots of orange groves."

(More to read in the link)

[doctor4766]

Wow, it's definately a sign of the times.
We're getting Chinese made cars in Australia now: Great Wall etc
Pricing seems to be the key on a lot of things coming out of China, including labor which is the killer for many western countries.

[TK73]

damn sad... 

[bull]

Is it going to be 75% melamine? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal

[torqueflite]

Yea Im over the chinese stuff .... gearbox mounts that dont fit properly... train locos that have so many issues... I dont know most of its just cheap crap

[DC_1]

Here in Toronto we have a area heavily populated with Chinese. I have on occasion had to do business with them. Most are always wanting to buy products NOT made in China and prefer Japanese or European products which they feel are of better quality.......ironic the Chinese have a low opinion of Chinese made products yet we continue to run out and buy the junk..... 

[twodko]

Remember how Japanese knock offs were crap back in the day? Now consider the quality of Japan's products - cars/trucks, electronics, med technology et al. Top notch stuff and in many cases the gold standard. There will come a time, sooner than later, when Chinese products are of the same quality. I think the current issues with product quality in China are a direct function of poor quality control born out of "cheap" labor and the "rush" to be an economic powerhouse. I also think a massive pro-labor movement is just around the corner in China. Western amenities, life styles, higher education etc are all having a formidable influence on the Chinese people because they want these things as well and why not! It may not happen any time soon, although I'd like to see it, but the Chinese political regimes' days are numbered IMO. The people are tired of being oppressed, brutalized and ruled over by the recently dead.  

[Troy]

Compare the prices between the old Japanese junk and the newer high quality Japanese products. Chinese products will get more expensive as they get better and the wages rise (and when they break away from indexing their currency to the US dollar). Cheap junk is always cheap junk and there will always be someone willing to produce it since people can't seem to stay away from it.

I work in the software industry and so much has been made about jobs going to India. What most people don't know is that India has been outsourcing to Brazil and other places with even cheaper labor as their labor costs (and quality of life) have risen. Hasn't done a damn thing to improve quality though. Probably has a little to do with a language barrier (translating specifications through at least 3 languages).

Troy

[Old Moparz]

Having said that, it's coming around full circle to the USA, as Ikea sees us as a source for cheap labor. 

[ITSA426]

I would think Californians would do better if the costs and wages stayed as close to home as possible.  Maybe they are just so flush with dollars their economy is doing better than many other states.

[Troy]

I would think Californians would do better if the costs and wages stayed as close to home as possible.  Maybe they are just so flush with dollars their economy is doing better than many other states.

It's a catch-22: the state turned down Federal dollars for the project so they didn't have to compromise their plans. They saved $400 million by doing so (ie. not having to pay American workers or union wages). On the other hand, $7.2 billion dollars would have been a lot of money and a lot of jobs to keep in the state when unemployment is at the current levels. The city and state governments could have had something to boast about - at the expense of hammering the (already humongous) deficit. Of course, they aren't the first... New York beat them to it.

Troy

[bull]

California officials estimate that they will save at least $400 million by farming this out to China but if the project costs $7.2 billion, $400 million is a drop in the bucket by comparison. Especially since they could have put all of it into the US economy.

Having said that, it's coming around full circle to the USA, as Ikea sees us as a source for cheap labor. 

Yup. Once we're reduced to a third-world country the jobs will finally return.

[Old Moparz]

Just had to add this, photos made in China might not be so good either....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/29/chinese-county-ridicule-doctored-photograph

Chinese Faked Photograph Leaves Officials On Street Of Shame

Peter Walker   
Guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 29 June 2011 17.58 BST


For government officials in Huili, a distinctly modest county in a rural corner of south-west China, attracting national media coverage would normally seem a dream come true. Unfortunately, their moment in the spotlight was not so welcome: mass ridicule over what may well be one of the worst-doctored photographs in internet history.

The saga began on Monday when Huili's website published a picture showing, according to the accompanying story, three local officials inspecting a newly completed road construction project this month. The picture certainly portrayed the men, and the road, but the officials appeared to be levitating several inches above the tarmac. As photographic fakery goes it was astonishingly clumsy.

The outraged – or amused – calls began to the county's PR department, which immediately apologised and withdrew the image. The explanation was almost as curious as the picture itself: as other photos showed, the three men did visit the road in question, but an unnamed photographer decided his original pictures were not suitably impressive and decided to stitch two together.

"A government employee posted the edited picture out of error... The county government understands the wide attention, and hope to apologise for and clarify the matter," a Huili official told the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Officials from the county, in Sichuan province, even hurriedly signed up to the hugely popular Sina Weibo social media site to post an explanation.

All this was, however, too late to prevent a torrent of mockery as the offending image was passed around chatrooms and other websites. Inevitably, within hours there was a flood of parodies showing the officials variously landing on the moon, surrounded by dinosaurs and, in one instance, joined on their inspection tour by the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il.

[doctor4766]

LMAO

[Brock Samson]

 

[moparjohn]

SAD!

[Budnicks]

Isn't that Nancy Poloesi (spelling?) & Barbra Boxer's voters districts, Hum.....

[AKcharger]

Things aren't all Rosy for China. A Command Economy can be highly inefficient. The government can dictate what will and will not be build regardless if there's a demand.

Check this out, massive cities built for millions...all empty

http://www.grist.org/cities/2011-03-31-chinas-ghost-cities-and-the-biggest-property-bubble-of-all

[Troy]

Isn't that Nancy Poloesi (spelling?) & Barbra Boxer's voters districts, Hum.....

Pelosi

Troy

[Brock Samson]

  All the cranes in Oakland that off-load the Chinese stuff bound for Chinese owned Walmart are also made in China, might as well sail under a Chinese bridge.. So that horse left the barn back in the '90s..