Research Paper on Importing & Exporting With China

Many people would think that trading raw materials is mutually beneficial between countries. The US economy depends on profiting globally, and we understand the benefit of using cheap labor in foreign countries through FDI. However, what happens when a state financed enterprise in China strategically buys up raw materials like iron and petroleum. I am not just talking about an even percentage, I mean “greater than 90% of the world’s raw supply of iron” and complete control over the U.S. petroleum supply.1 Fortunately, the US government noticed what they were up to and made it illegal for another county to purchase a controlling interest in the U.S. petroleum supply. On a side note, it was only five years ago that the North Korean government financed a massive plant to produce billions in counterfeit U.S. currency. Everyone knows that the U.S. military forces are superior to any other country, but there is one thing that we do not have. China has a “population of 87 million exceeds most European nations”.2 Many of these people are living in less fortunate conditions. You might even assume that they would prefer a better life, and the right leader could influence them to do so at the expense of other nations.
We are vastly out numbered, so what makes our military forces superior?

The answer is technology, industry, petroleum, and iron. Technology is always either for sale, or it can be gathered through espionage. China can buy the same level of technology from intermediaries or allied governments. Industry can be built with economic growth. Currently China is the number one growing economy in the world. It nearly controlled our petroleum supply domestically and failed, so China decided to buy petroleum from Saudi Arabia through German intermediaries. Now our gas prices are going through the roof and stock analysts are saying its some kind of market fluke created by a belief that oil prices will continue to soar.

Iron, the main export that I would like to discuss, is five times its original price four years ago when China started buying up the world’s supply of raw iron. Right now, they are using this iron to create cranes and other machinery to export to the US and other nations, but most of the iron is being stockpiled in China for future use. What future use? We can only speculate. Why would China stockpile their ever-increasing supply of iron and still buy more, regardless of the price (literally)? What big plans do they have for such an immense stockpile of iron? Aren’t bullets, guns, factories, and tanks made out of iron? Absolutely, here is a piece of an article on the Chinese economy.

“In recent years China's booming economy, fueled by large inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) and rapid export growth, has emerged as a significant force in the global economy. This year, China surpassed the United States as the world's largest recipient of FDI, and its bilateral trade surplus with the United States reached $117 billion in the 12 months up through August 2003. Both inward investment and export growth create strong demand for China's currency, the Yuan. All things being equal, such demand pressures should cause the Yuan to appreciate relative to the U.S. dollar and cause China's external position to return to balance.”3

Since China is the number one growing economy on the planet, they also have the number one growing currency relative to the US and other nations. Everyday China is become more industrialized. They used to be a purely state controlled economy, but they are starting to develop into more of a free economy in some areas. Overall, they are not shutting down as many businesses that do not pay the government officials regular bribes, which is definitely a move in the right direction.

The US wants to encourage free trade with China because of their enormous population. This means that US companies would have access to a huge new market of consumers. It also means improving the quality of life in China. It is also widely known that many native Chinese women perform acts of prostitution or marry solely to support their family. It is also common in China to see people walking barefoot because they cannot afford sandals, or seeing people including children who are starving. China also has more than 300 organized crime syndicates with a history that goes back to the Shaolin Monks. China is a desperate nation, so desperate that they engage in foreign currency scams to inflate the value of the Renminbi (pronounced Yuan). In 2000, the exchange rate was 8.3 Yuan per U.S. dollar. Today, the exchange rate is 7.6 Yuan per US dollar. Here is the second piece of the article above.

“But all things are not equal: China pegs the Yuan to the dollar at a fixed rate and strictly regulates imports and the allocation of foreign exchange. In order to maintain the Yuan’s fixed value, China must create a residual supply of Yuan to counter growing demand for its currency; China achieves this by buying dollars in foreign exchange markets. Between December 2000 and July 2003, China more than doubled its foreign reserve holdings from $168 billion (16% of its GDP) to $361 billion (31% of its GDP).”4

“How should the United States respond? On nine occasions between 1988 and 1992, the U.S. Treasury found that similar external surpluses accompanied by much smaller accumulation of foreign reserves constituted evidence that countries—including China—were manipulating their currency's value for competitive trade advantage. When such a finding is made, U.S. law requires the Treasury Secretary to undertake negotiations to end such manipulation. Current evidence indicates that China is engaged in just such a manipulation of the Yuan for competitive gain.”5

Today, foreign “investment, combined with China's swelling export earnings, have pushed the country's foreign exchange reserves beyond $600 billion”.6

One thing that I learned from experience is that desperate people and people that try to steal from others generally cannot be trusted. This is why, among all the other evidence I provided above, I do not think we should let the Chinese government do whatever they want. They should not have a majority of the world's iron, petroleum or our country's economic and physical security in the palm of their hands. What good are tanks and supply trucks that do not have gas? This may seem silly today, because we are not at war with China.

In support of this opinion, many nations like Japan learned long ago that warfare in the physical sense is foolish and destructive, because it diminishes the productive capacity of the nation unless they can build new factories just as fast as their enemies can blow them up.

Today, the real modern warfare is economics. If China shuts down U.S. companies that depend on buying iron at a certain price in order to earn a profit after U.S. labor costs, then they take our market share and our productive capacity depends on whether China will sell us what we need. Prices are good today because Chinese labor costs are low, but it will not stay that way according to economic theory. Eventually the FDI, which exceeds our nation, will create even more jobs and economic prosperity in China. The end-result will increase wages, and hopefully it will improve working conditions.

However, if China does not sell to us anymore and they do the same bullying routine in other international markets, then we could be at a serious economic and military disadvantage. Should we trust China and believe that they want to change for the better? Here is an article that may shed some light on that question.

“China wants to suspend human rights talks with the United States. The news came after Washington said yesterday that it will condemn Beijing's serious violations with a resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission currently underway in Geneva. The Chinese foreign minister called the action taken by the Americans a ‘serous meddling in China's internal affairs.’ China's Vice Foreign7 Minister said the ‘clash intentionally provoked by the United States has now seriously damaged any basis for dialog and discussion on human rights issues between both countries. China must immediately suspend talks and discussion.’ Yesterday, US State Department spokesperson, Richard Boucher, expressed the American government's disappointment with Beijing's inadequacies in improving human rights conditions in the country, after commitments it undertook in 2002 and 2003. Boucher also stressed Washington's concern about ‘backward steps’ being taken by China, as reported in the American government's world human rights report released last Feb. Last year the United States asked for a resolution, stating that Beijing had made limited, though significant progress in the sphere of human rights. The resolution was presented each year after the brutal repression of the student protestors in Tiananmen Square in June 1989. This year various human rights organizations, like Human Rights Watch, asked that the United States to put back a motion to blacklist Beijing. Even American trade union representatives requested that their government condemn China for the way it trades its labor force. Meanwhile Amnesty International called for a moratorium on the death penalty on China, reporting that the Chinese legal system does not guarantee fair trials and often punishes innocent persons. Yesterday the AI published a report titled ‘Executed according to law?’ ‘The report was released following statements made by a member of Chinese Parliament who said that every year there are at least 10,000 people sentenced to death in China 5 times more than all cases of capital punishment registered worldwide’.”8

The Chinese people are very much like our own with the exception that they communicate more through context and women are not valued very highly in their society. They also have four different cooking styles based on the four different regions. They speak different languages in each region, and they have a wide array of different traditions based on the former cultures that lived there before. China does not tolerate freedom of speech and they frequently kill anyone who is suspected on saying negative things about the current government. There is no defense or
fair trial, and basic human rights are not valued by their government. Their economy is state controlled, but they are slowly changing into a free enterprise economy.

I think that trading with China is mutually beneficial as long as they are not buying up significant amounts of raw materials that affect our national security. After the “911 attacks on New York and the Pentagon”, security measures at the ports are very strict in the US.9 The Port of Tacoma and the Port of Seattle have cameras, tall fences, and security personal strategically placed. They also conduct more customs inspections than before, and canines are commonly used to find people and contraband. The US also has a satellite system that detects nuclear radiation, infrared (heat signatures), records and filters every electronic conversation in the US, and video records the activities of the world’s ports. They also pay very close attention to refrigerated and abnormally heavy containers for biological weapons and shielded nuclear material.

China does not perform any significant security measures other than custom inspections accompanied by armed guards. Custom inspectors frequently accept bribes to expedite export and import processing, which creates a huge delay for companies who did not pay bribes or paid less. Dogs are also used for detecting contraband, but they use german sheppards instead of beagles. German sheppards are know to be effective in chasing down people and enforcing security. However, beagles have two hundred times the ability to smell contraband. This means that their port security is seriously lacking unless they physically inspect every crate, which they do not normally do whenever a bribe is taken to expedite the customs process.

Recently, the Port of Tacoma purchased three cranes from China to unload containers off the ships. They purchased scrap iron from suppliers in Washington State, melted the iron down, manufactured the cranes, and sold them back to us for less than domestic companies could make them.
Inventories of iron are currently state managed and exceed “70% of iron imports internationally”.10 US laws regarding customs are identified as governing security measures domestically. Otherwise, maritime laws apply to shipments.

The political ramifications of cutting off certain resources to China will make them an enemy. In order for the US to be effective at cutting off the massive purchasing campaign of iron by China, it will need allies who are all the current trading partners to do the same thing. However, this would also make them enemies of China, and suppliers are becoming very wealthy by selling their raw materials for a higher price to China. This means that international trading partners must have a significant reason to cut China off or limit them other than the US’s economic prosperity.

Culturally we also have to consider that the Chinese want a better life, and they want independence. It is unlikely that the US will be able to push the Chinese government into giving their people human rights without completely replacing their government or waiting a significant number of years for their human rights policies to catch up with the rest of the civilized countries in the world.

Geographically, China has taken over Hong Kong, which is the largest shipping location of Chinese imports and exports. The decision of the Chinese government to take over Hong Kong assures their ability to distribute goods internationally without major changes in worldwide distribution. Economically, we must understand that China has a lot to offer in terms of cheap labor and outsourcing, but it may come with a steep cost in the near future.

Letters of credit are guaranteed by international banks in Malaysia and China based on current deposits. This insures payment on receipt of goods for both imports and exports. The global marketing process for government contracts is the same as it is in the US. Foreign bidders are required to send a proposal to the government authority issuing the contract. Whether they choose to buy or not from a foreign source is a balance between price driven economics and supporting local companies.

China has no restrictions on the treatment of their employees, the ages of workers, the hours they work, the healthcare of employees or their working conditions. US employers must abide by laws concerning the treatment of minors, paying overtime, paying wages, paying health and unemployment benefits, discrimination, etc.

Foreign investment in China is carefully controlled in specific sectors and industries. Foreign investment in the US is allowed as long as it does not negatively impact our national security. This is why the US government stopped China from purchasing a controlling position in the U.S.’s primary oil supplier. However, it is almost a guarantee that they will try again.

If you choose to do business in China, please carefully consider the implications of your actions. Making a great profit is very important, but it can never come at the expense of our lives, the lives of our children or the world's stability and security. I think the world has a great opportunity everyday to change for the greater good, maybe our enemies will decide that building a better world for everyone is better than petty arguments over land, money and religion.

Bibliography
Flannery, Russell. At Your Service, China! New York, NY: Forbes, 2007

Goodman, Peter S. China Ends Fixed-Rate Currency. Washington DC: Washington Post, 2005

Hersh, Adam S. China's currency manipulation and U.S. trade. Washington, DC: Economic
Policy Institute, 2003
http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_archive_10302003se

Hill, Charles W.L. Global Business Today 5th Edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin,
2008

R., M. Beijing suspends human rights talks with United States. Geneva: Asia News, 2004
http://www.asianews.it/view4print.php?l=en&art=524