China

• Manufacturing 

  • 1990- share of global manufactures (sum of exports and imports) 2% 
  • 2010- 10%
• • Extreme poverty
  • 1990- 60%
  • 2005- 16%
• • 2000-2010- Condition improved for many workers 
  • Wages increased between 30-65% 
  • Waged Work- Lifted 680 million out of extreme poverty since 1980
• • 1990s- ‘workshop of the world’- low labour costs for tncs 
  • 2010- high-tech manufacturing creating high-value goods
• Car ownership- 1 in 100 to 1 in 5 since 2000
• Chinese banks- some of the world’s largest TNCs
• • Developed World’s longest Highway Network 
  • Three Gorges HEP Dam
  • Rail system reached 100,000 km in length; HSR system- Longest in world
  • 82 Airports built since 2000- total of 250
• • 300 million Chinese now considered middle class 
• 2013- more laptops and TVs were bought by Chinese than Americans 
• • Extreme poverty rate- 84% in 1980- 10% in 2016
  • Between 1981-2010- number in poverty reduced by 680 million 
• 20% of population live on less than US$2 a day - particularly rural areas 

  • They cope with low incomes due to remittance payments from urban family members
• Largest recipient of FDI since 2000
• Global trade value:

  • 2001- 3%
  • 2013- 10%
• By 2015- 150 cities with population of over 1 million - only 30 cities in 2000
• • 2012- 30,000 PhDs awarded in China
  • Education Free and compulsory for 5-15 year olds.                                           
• SEZs set up including: Shenzhen, Guangdong Provinces, Shanghai  
• Literacy rate:

  • 1950s- 20%
  • 2015- 84%
• Technology transfer as local companies adopt TNC techniques.

  New Chinese TNCs, like Huawei smart phones. 
• Monitoring and enforcing- responsibility of local governments- lack expertise- more concerned about economic growth 
• 60% groundwater- poor or of extremely poor quality
• 36% forests facing pressure from urban expansion
• South China Sea and Yellow Sea- most degraded marine areas on Earth- UN
• 67km2 lost to desertification annually
• • 2013- fine airborne particulates- pose largest health risks- levels as high as 993μm/m3 in Beijing- WHO recommends no more than 25 
  • 5 of world’s most polluted cities are in China - World Bank
• Early years- 2500 metal-workers lost limb or finger annually due to factory conditions in Yongkang
• Dongguan

  • Wintek -company that makes Iphone Touchscreens 
  • Workers poisoned by chemicals used to treat the glass
• Hunan Province

  • People were poisoned by lead-emitting manganese smelter
  • Manganese- used to strengthen steel
• Workers face long hours at repetitive tasks. 

  • Foxconn (Taiwanese TNC) produces iPhones outsourced by Apple, and operates 70 hour weeks in a Shenzhen factory. 
  • 14 suicides in 2010.