Made in China to designed in China

If you have an iPhone, flip it around and read the writing on its back. It says: "Designed by Apple in California, Assembled in China." Workers in Foxconn work day and night to just assemble iPhones and other electronic gadgets which are then distributed across the world. But what about design? That is taken care of by Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California.

The iPhone (or the iPad) is not the only globally popular product made in China. An overwhelming percentage of the products consumers across the world use are made in China. China manufactures for the world and enjoys an advantage in the production market, which affects the real economy of the United States.

In such a case - when China is home to the world's largest manufacturing industry - American people are likely to suffer from Sinophobia. And certain categories of American workers would feel insecure about their jobs, fearing that some day their work could be outsourced to China or India, countries with lower labor costs.

It's true that China's manufacturing industry is delivering a huge percentage of the goods used by people around the world. But is China being applauded for that? Not really.

Made in China labels are fine. But how many top brands does China have? And how many Chinese brands can Americans and other Westerners recognize?

More often than not Westerners think products made in China are cheap and of low quality. It's an irony then that China delivers products of so many top brands, including Apple and Microsoft, to the world. It's time China started making efforts to ensure that products carry "Designed in China", instead of "Made in China", labels. But for that Chinese enterprises have to have long-term plans and be innovative.

He Qian, from China Daily blog

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(China Daily 10/10/2013 page9)