Hi everyone,
Today marks the official debut of my first book, The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage. The book is an insider’s account of the unintended consequences of the explosion in trade between China and America, an examination of the cost China has paid to produce goods for the world so cheaply. Two years in the making, The China Price touches on many of the issues in the headlines today: Chinese product safety, social unrest, and the future of Chinese competitive advantage.
Chinese factories play such a big role in all of our lives, producing many of the consumer goods we buy. The China Price takes us inside these influential institutions and introduces us to their staff, their owners, and their customers – people we may never meet, but who have a direct impact on what we eat, wear, and use.
Kirkus Reviews called The China Price "essential reading for anyone concerned about how dangerous pet food and clothing manufactured in China make it into American stores". CSR Asia’s Stephen Frost says the book has "exposed a largely hitherto unknown world via a forensic examination written in a crisp style usually reserved for good novels." Access Asia called it "excellent and highly recommended".
The China Price, published by the Penguin Press, is now available in all major bookstores and online at Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, Amazon.co.uk, and other retailers. An audio version from Tantor Audio is also available.Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/China-Price-Chinese-Competitive-Advantage/dp/1594201579Barnes & Noble
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-China-Price/Alex-Harney/e/9781594201578/?itm=1
Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/China-Price-Chinese-Competitive-Advantage/dp/1594201579/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206973263&sr=1-1Please support my book by picking up a copy and passing on this email to your friends and anyone you think might be interested. I will be in cities across the US in April to talk about the book, and will be appearing on radio and television as well, starting this week. For more details about the book, media and talks, please visit my websites: http://thechinaprice.org/ and http://thechinaprice.blogspot.com.
Thank you so much for your support!All the best,
Alex
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The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage by Alexandra Harney
http://thechinaprice.org/
http://thechinaprice.blogspot.com/
I don’t really like to send emails to all my friends, so I am support Alexandra by posting a blog entry about her new book. I didn’t read the book yet (still waiting for Amazon to ship it for me), but I know Alexandra. She is a sweet girl who have lived in Japan, Mainland China and now in Hong Kong (of cause, in the States).
Haven’t read the book, but I have heard lots of debates on this China trade (mostly negative comments), such as this one (quoted from above)
“essential reading for anyone concerned about how dangerous pet food and clothing manufactured in China make it into American stores”.
This is very much one-sided and biased, in my opinion. Being a Chinese who have studied and worked (still live) in the US in the past 10 years, I have seen all the stuff made in China, and I believe I have some authority on this matter.
Whether one wants to admit or not, China’s cheap (but quality) exports helped the US inflation in control in last decade. From the stuffs in Wal-Mart or iPod, it helped the squezzed middle class have some money left over for the starbucks coffee or their kids Nintendo DS. It also helped Steve Jobs and his troop cash in handsomely from the record corporate profit. Meanwhile, as I understand the workers in China did not get paid much, and their working conditions are not that great either (but they still do better than not working). Much of the profit goes to factory owners.
Use my own example yesterday, I bought this decent floor lamp for $16 at Target:
http://www.target.com/5-Head-Floor-Lamp-Blue/dp/B000WUXQAY/sr=1-12/qid=1207062432/ref=sr_1_12/602-6924716-8167013?ie=UTF8&index=target&rh=k%3Afloor%20lamp&page=1
Yeah, it is not perfect, and requires assembly, but hey it’s just $16, or 102 Yuan. I doubt I can buy that quality lamp at 102 Yuan in Shanghai though.
So, what’s my point? While there are some incidents in the Chinese exports to the west, we should ackowledge trade in large extent benifit both sides. Probablly more benifit to the western receipients (consumers, corporations CEOs and shareholders) than the migrant workers in China.
heard you on the radio this morning on NPR (National Public Radio). Interesting conversation on “Three dollars goes to the brand, and one dollar goes to the manufacturer. They [China] are aware of those three dollars and they want to get into that”.
Why don’t American’s mind their own business. Journalists should be reporting on where the weapons of mass destruction are in Iraq not about factory workers that are so called being exploited in China.
Haven’t read the book, but I have heard lots of debates on this China US trade (mostly negative comments), such as this one (quoted from above) “essential reading for anyone concerned about how dangerous pet food and clothing manufactured in China make it into American stores”.
This is very much one-sided and biased, in my opinion. Being a Chinese who have studied and worked (still live) in the US in the past 10 years, I have seen all the stuff made in China, and I believe I have some authority on this matter.
Whether one wants to admit or not, China’s cheap (but quality) exports helped the US inflation in
control in last decade. From the stuffs in Wal-Mart or iPod, it helped the squezzed American middle class have some money left over for the starbucks coffee or their kids Nintendo DS. It also helped Steve Jobs and his troops cash in handsomely from the record corporate profit. Meanwhile, as I understand the workers in China iPod factory did not get paid much, and their working conditions are not that great either (but they still do better than not working). Much of the profit goes to factory owners.
Use my own example, I bought this decent floor lamp for $16 at Target recently:
http://www.target.com/5-Head-Floor-Lamp-Blue/dp/B000WUXQAY/sr=1-12/qid=1207062432/ref=sr_1_12/602-6924716-8167013?ie=UTF8&index=target&rh=k%3Afloor%20lamp&page=1
Yeah, it is not perfect, and requires assembly, but hey it’s just $16, or 102 Yuan. I doubt I can buy that quality lamp at 102 Yuan in Shanghai though.
So, what’s my point? While there are some incidents in the Chinese exports to the west, we should
ackowledge trade in large extent benifit both sides. Probablly more benifit goes to the western receipients (consumers, corporations CEOs and shareholders) than the migrant workers in China.
After all, most of those workers are just trying to make the ends meet…