Donald John Trump huffed again. As a result, the stock market in the US plunged and A-share was no exception.
To date after the trade war started, all parties involved have been well ready. As the saying goes “The fighting spirit aroused by the first roll of drums is depleted by the second and exhausted by the third”, Trump has played a winning hand bad. No wonder a White House journalist unveiled that he made decisions at will and was easily manipulated by persons at his side, when mentioning his biography Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.
Rumors like this about his unreliability have recently widely spread. The only way is to be fearless and well prepared.
The latest hit documentary American Factory invested by ex-president Obama depicts cultural difference and frictions when Fuyao Glass, a business in China, marched into America and built a factory. It implies production shift to the US has been impossible.
Based in my hometown Fuqing City, Fujian Province, Fuyao Glass is a magnate committed to automobile glass. A decade ago, when I was a high school teenager, some slow learners in our class dropped out to work at Fuyao Glass factory and enjoyed a wage of RMB3,000 per month, rather considerable compared with our teachers’ pay RMB2,000. I felt in a trance when fellow Hokkiens in this film spoke in a heavy hometown accent.
Available at Youku and bilibili video websites, this documentary was impressive.
1.I am surprised to know Fuyao employees merely have one or two days off a month, which is not common even in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces known for busy businesses and long overtime. No wonder they envied long paid leaves of visitors from American factory.
- HeShimeng,Chairman of the Fuyao Workers Union and brother in law of Cao Dewang, Fuyao Chairman, stressed in an interview that each worker at Fuyao is part of that Union, though the workers union is resolutely rejected into Fuyao Glass America as remarked by Cao. The Union at home mainly functions to distribute gifts as an expression of gratitude or sympathy, which is beyond comprehension abroad.
3.Two foreigners were astounded to see a couple of workers sorting out glass without any protection. This, on the other hand, showed Fuyao was not specially prepared for their visit given the fact that factory inspection logically focuses on human rights especially when such a big business is talked about. Such lack of safety measures will be picked at for rectification once found.
- The annual celebration and performances were staged in a distinctive Chinese style, so familiar to Chinese, while foreign participants gave an expression of resignation. It can be sort of culture export.
5.A young director found himself not followed when he went back to Fuyao Glass America from a visit to the Factory in China and tried to apply the technique of slogan shouting, roll call and queueing among workers.
- Fuyao won 868:444 in its vote against the labor union UAW after it paid LRI (Labor Relations Institute) USD 1 million to train employee.
7.In the last scene of this film, a test to replace workhands with mechanical arms was underway at Fuyao as part of its manpower reducing plan.
Fuyao Glass America was set up at its client GM’s request. At that time, top US automakers got into trouble in succession affected by the economic crisis and were saved by the US treasury that required auto components go local in production.
In all, it costs 36% higher than a factory set in China, as shown in the chart.
In this sense, it is unfeasible for other suppliers more sensitive to costs or prices to produce in the US, considering Fuyao, so able and resourceful, was not free from culture and management headaches, and ended up in spending more.
