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What unique products does China make?

garyhlucas

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New Jersey
I've been trying to think of a wholly unique product coming out of China that isn't simply a copy of something made in the US or elsewhere. We can all likely agree that Japan has done a fine job in optics with cameras and such and Switzerland was renowned for watches, Germany builds some nice cars and machine tools too. For the life of me I can't come up with a product the Chinese are known for except fireworks hundreds of years ago. Currently it appears their economy is primarily driven by being really good at totally ignoring any kind of intellectual property rights and simply copying everything they see really fast.

For all you little shops that would love to have a product to call your own it appears it is very difficult to make any money at it, because the time between you taking it to market and the Chinese copy showing up via China Post from Yunghotchic who is a front for a Chinese conglomerate is like a month these days!

What am I missing here?
 
....

What am I missing here?

The way the market works. Kill or be killed.
Crying about copies shows that you can not be competitive.
Those in China get this, other's whine and cry about unfair it is.
The game is to beat everyone, if you can not the question is how do you do it?
One can cry like a little bitch that they have an advantage here or there or take them on head first.
You are the best in the world in price and delivery or you suck hind tit and live off what you get.
Bob
 
Polysilicon.
Cheap PV cells and panels.
Most global production.

Rare earth materials - about 90% of global production iirc.
For neodymium etc. magnets for servos, steppers, etc.

Decently priced (cheap) caterpillar type earthmoving equipment.
iPhones.

Cheapish space tech (india also does this).
India did a mars mission for 54M$. NASA did the same for 4B$.

Ultra high speed trains.
China is the global leader, by far.

Supercomputers.
China is the global leader, by far.
 
Beef n broccoli
Chicken lol mein
General tsos chicken
Steamed dumplings
Wonton soup

Mmm

(Yes I realize they are Americanized meals)
 
(Yes I realize they are Americanized meals)

Meahh.. I've actually raised "Ong Choy" and "winter melon" - not easily found fresh, stateside, even in Asian markets - on a tiny corner patch of sub-one-quarter acre, here in Nawthun' Virginia.

But there's the point.

We see China as such an 'export' powerhouse we ass u me 15% domestic consumption, 85% export.

The REVERSE is closer to reality. 85% or so locally consumed, 15% exported and only a bit over ten-percent of that 'value add' anyway.

They do not HAVE to out-do Boeing, Mercedes-Benz, Intel, or Sandvik.

All they have to do is produce medium-decent goods that offer enough 'value for money' to satisfy relatively undemanding consumers. The very sort that there are the most OF. Always. And everywhere.

As they do. Foreign OR domestic.

One former head of state, PRC, once bemoaned that China had to export 20 million pair of shoes to be able to buy one Boeing 747?

So what? With over 14 billion individual FEET on-planet? There is a ready market for cheap, but serviceable-enough shoes, and then they wear out and need replaced in a helluva lot less time than 30 or 40 years for the Boeing as well.

Find things you are 'good enough' at doing to reliably earn a crust, do them again, better and faster = no more famine in China.

Just how many f*****g Rolls-Royce motorcars, Feadship yachts, or Gulfstream "Executive" jets can a person EAT a one-point-five billionth SHARE of anyway?

That simple. Really - it is.
 
I've been trying to think of a wholly unique product coming out of China that isn't simply a copy of something made in the US or elsewhere. We can all likely agree that Japan has done a fine job in optics with cameras and such and Switzerland was renowned for watches, Germany builds some nice cars and machine tools too. For the life of me I can't come up with a product the Chinese are known for except fireworks hundreds of years ago. Currently it appears their economy is primarily driven by being really good at totally ignoring any kind of intellectual property rights and simply copying everything they see really fast.

For all you little shops that would love to have a product to call your own it appears it is very difficult to make any money at it, because the time between you taking it to market and the Chinese copy showing up via China Post from Yunghotchic who is a front for a Chinese conglomerate is like a month these days!

What am I missing here?

the Chinese will say they originally created castings of cast iron or bronze. lost wax casting, porcelain pottery, ceramic tile roofs, paper, printing, silk clothe, many many things.
.
the things you see imported into USA are items an American has ordered to be made and had imported into the USA. often they are not even sold at all in China.
.
you need to go to a big city in China to see what they have in stores. most Americans are open mouth in awe at all the things in the stores
 
old and new China

pictures show old and new in China
 

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the Chinese will say they originally created castings of cast iron or bronze. lost wax casting, porcelain pottery, ceramic tile roofs, paper, printing, silk clothe, many many things.
.
the things you see imported into USA are items an American has ordered to be made and had imported into the USA. often they are not even sold at all in China.
.
you need to go to a big city in China to see what they have in stores. most Americans are open mouth in awe at all the things in the stores

Yep, been there and saw it with own eyes. most of the stuff in stores was for local consumption, not export.
Americans can keep deluding themselves that only they can design/build/manufacture x/whatever. Reality is that China, India etc design and build for their own market and succeed. Machines, roads, bridges, airplanes, cars, mopeds, fashion, tools etc etc.When you see what can be built in short order it is no wonder that those countries are succeeding.
 
Does any other country make chopsticks?

LOL! Quite a few, actually. Most anyone with timber or plastic available. If no domestic market[1], they sell into Asia.

PRC, OTOH, has attempted to ban 'disposable' chopsticks - the sort one has to split apart to use. Not enough wood. They have to import it. Else import the chopsticks, complete.

Same again with coins and paper currency. PRC made a major push to electronic card payment even for sub 20-cent items. Not enough metal or paper to serve the size of their population.

They've moved ahead of the US and Europe on various 'smart' cards, mostly prepaid - not as a technology-leadership thing - most of the initial technology was European anyway.

They simply had no practical alternative for the high count of transactions as had to be served.

[1] And usually there IS a 'domestic' market. The count of expatriate ethnic Chinese in a global diaspora is greater than the entire population of the USA. And then.. we "Gweilo" of a a dozen and more NON-Chinese ethnicities drop in for a rather large amount of Chinese take-out meals...
 
Yep, been there and saw it with own eyes. most of the stuff in stores was for local consumption, not export.
Americans can keep deluding themselves that only they can design/build/manufacture x/whatever. Reality is that China, India etc design and build for their own market and succeed. Machines, roads, bridges, airplanes, cars, mopeds, fashion, tools etc etc.When you see what can be built in short order it is no wonder that those countries are succeeding.
.
.
i remember in China wanting to buy a solvent washer for cleaning bearings. i look in stores and on internet and only see 120 volt. China is 240 volt so i ask the purchasing people can the talk to factory and have it made for 240 volts. they did and the joint venture factory bought 2 solvent parts washers. then i had to find solvent, in Chinese labeled bottles they had water based and obviously could have used kerosene but cause of flammability hazard tried the water based first.
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i am just saying much of what you see imported into USA is an American asking Chinese factory to make. then American has it shipped or imported. Takes the sea container and has it emptied into a truck for delivery to a American store. its ordered by a American and sold by a American and imported products bought by Americans
.
you want to see Chinese tools look in Shiyong Wujin Shouce or standard hardware handbook like a universal hardware store catalog book sells for about $4 or $5 in most book stores in China. Chinese do have their preferences. usually see abrasive saws and grinders more than a bandsaw that needs a blade. had a bandsaw in the shop and only blades easily available were for cutting meat. lots of Chinese stores could order stuff they just did not carry stuff in stock that locals do not usually buy
 

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