The process is known as “the China Price” – the way that Chinese companies have managed to enter one industry after another over the past decade and drive down the prices to previously unimaginable levels. Low costs have been at the heart of China’s remarkable economic rise.
Yet recently, China’s image as a paradise of low-cost business has taken a number of blows. Some factories in the south have reported shortages of new workers, and wages in manufacturing are rising sharply. Moreover, the spate of scandals about the quality of Chinese products has raised questions regarding just how those costs were actually cut.
