China's Export Machine Threatened by Rising Costs - from the Wall Street Journal. Basically 75% of China's gross domestic product, US is 20%. So with exports increasing in price by about 5% last year, WalMart etc. is looking for cheaper costs than Made in China. This is in addition to increases due to shipping costs. Some businesses are even moving manufacturing back to the US do to increased fuel costs. Others are moving factories to Vietnam. China is attempting to move up the food chain into higher value added goods. The problem is when you just copy, there is not a lot of value added in that. All you are competing on is price. A friend of mine, an inventory, visited a factory in China with a bunch of computers, and was told this was their R&D. Looking at patent filings in the US and Japan. Historically many items were invented in China, this book is a great read! Made in China - Ideas and Inventions from Ancient China by Suzanne Williams

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