China Tells

Recently a graph from Wall Street Journal has caught my attention. In the graph (shown above) the author decomposes the components and cost of a typical Blackberry phone and the origin of the components manufacturers. As shown on the graph, none of the key components (those normally claiming a high knowledge content and price) are made in China. Instead, they come from other countries such as USA, Japan, South Korea, UK and Switzerland. To be fair, China does contribute her share in providing the plastic and metal parts of the phone, whose cost is not even mentioned in the components costs breakdown. I am not saying that a Blackberry phone represents the Chinese manufacturing industry. However, to a certain extent it does reveals the fact that China’s manufacturing capacity is still concentrated on the lower and easier part of the value chain. From time to time people might be misguided by what they see on the headline such as labeling China as the world’s leading production center. However there is still a long way to go from quantity to quality.

最近华尔街日报上的一幅图片引起了我的兴趣。这幅图片将黑莓手机的零配件分拆，然后标出各种零配件的原产地以及成本。从图中可以看出，一部黑莓手机，没有一个核心零部件是在中国生产的，他们主要来自于其他一些发达生产国，比如美国，日本，瑞士等等。唯一在黑莓手机上可以找到中国制造痕迹的就是塑料外壳。这个例子生动的体现了目前中国制造的窘境：有海量，无质量，任重道远。