An excellent essay by Andrew Browne:
“In the 1990s, much of
the global textile industry relocated yet again, to cities like Dongguan in
southern China, the world’s factory floor. Now, as Chinese wages soar, textiles
and apparel along with other labor-intensive export industries are on the move
once more, this time to inland China and, increasingly, to fast-growing
regional rivals such as Vietnam and Bangladesh.
Globalization is
shortening these cycles. Technology accelerates the churn. Like Lowell and a
more recent procession of U.S. manufacturing cities, Dongguan is emptying out,
and the economic and social shocks are triggering a political earthquake in
China just as they are in the U.S.
The political dynamics
in the two countries are very different, of course, but there are striking
parallels. The most obvious are the wrenching dislocations created by a world
of impatient capital, footloose labor and intricate cross-border supply chains.
Vulnerable workers in both countries are feeling the pinch.”