“Rising China” Debate

On September sixth I had a little extra time after my classes and was ahead on my homework for the week. I chose to go to the “Rising China” debate, hosted by the  Alexander Hamilton Club, at Mendenhall Lab 100. This was a Non-International Affairs campus event. This event really captivated my attention and I intend on returning to future meetings this club hosts. The topic of the debate was the trade war with China.

The debaters both introduced multiple intriguing points that night. One of the most notable, and to be candid, interesting points mentioned was the complexity of international trade. China has some of the world’s most complete and developed production chains. The debaters used the example of an iPod to capture this idea. They explained how China has moved up the technological ladder and can now produce high end goods (like an iPod). This wasn’t the part that captivated my attention. The thing that I found most interesting was that the Chinese companies that were making these iPods only make about eleven cents profit off of the three hundred dollar iPods. I found this fact completely astonishing.

This baffling statistic explains how Apple can be recognized as one of the worlds only one-trillion dollar companies (alongside Amazon and Microsoft). Apple is making nearly one hundred and fifty dollars profit off of each of their iPods because they make these Chinese companies buy and acquire all of the parts from other countries (such as India). This also helps to explain why Chinese profits are so low for the iPod. But consider the iPhone X debater, Dr. YU, asked. The iPhone X has a retail value of over one thousand dollars, a truly breathtaking amount of money, but, Chinese companies still only average about eleven dollars profit off of producing these iPhones. I found this unbelievably.

After learning this, I understood that China wasn’t the “bad guy” outsourcing thousands of American jobs. Their citizens are trying to make ends meet as badly as ours. This debate increased my global awareness by helping me to understand the inner workings of international trade. I learned that the real culprits were companies such as Apple that bathe in their own profit margins. I personally use multiple Apple products (including the iPad that I am writing this paper on), but now, I am beginning to question if I really should be pouring my money into such a greedy company.

Another shocking fact I learned at this debate hinted even more towards our current president’s incompetence. His policy, regarding the trade war with china, adopts a stance that a trade war can be “won” and that we are in fact “winning”. I found this entirely ridiculous. Neither side is benefiting and both are hurting because of it (America more so than China).

In retrospect, I learned a lot. My major take away messages being: China isn’t the “bad guy” and we have a very complex web of trade. I believe that attending this debate has increased my global awareness about the subject and I am very interested in learning more.