For now, most of the cars and light trucks made here are sold here. But China — already the world's dominant manufacturer of products from toys to facsimile machines to furniture — is laying plans to become a big exporter of cars. Automakers are producing cars here to the same designs that they use in the United States, with Honda making Accords in Guangzhou that are identical to those it manufactures in Ohio.
China's auto industry, mainly local companies in joint ventures with multinationals, is not internationally competitive because of quality problems and startlingly inefficient parts factories. Workers at Dickensian foundries filled with acrid green fumes still ladle chemical additives into buckets of molten steel, then tip the buckets by hand to pour the steel into molds for auto parts.
China's auto exports to the United States mostly consist now of replacement parts shipped to repair garages, because automakers have been reluctant to make their assembly plants reliant on Chinese suppliers. But with broad support from Beijing and foreign investors, manufacturers in China are quickly improving operations — and staffing them with workers earning as little as 50 cents an hour. In a few years, they are likely to be building high-quality cars and parts for as little as, or less than, anyone else in the world. Analysts say that China could surpass Germany as the world's No. 3 carmaking country in four years....
Worldwide Worries The automaking boom in China worries many businesses and workers in many nations. International companies that build factories in China as they expand do not need to hire as many workers in their home markets, and may lay off some. The Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, for example, said last month that it would ship tire making equipment from its factory in Albany, Ga., to a company in in Hangzhou and buy as many as 300,000 truck tires a year from the Chinese company. At the same time, Cooper said it would expand production in Georgia of higher-performance tires, but would not expand its labor force to do so.http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/02/automobiles/02CARS.html?pagewanted=1&hpThe entire article is interesting, and gives insight into why globalization is and isn't a threat. Threat or not, it is impossible to stop: notice that Japanese and German competitors are already investing heavily in China; if the U.S. doesn't follow suit, we lose out on both the market there, and the opportunity to manufacture there. Protectionism is, by and large, a placebo, not a real cure for the problems of globalization.
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