Notes from my career crypt

I'm always fascinated to hear about the short cuts people take to do their jobs better. I don't mean cutting corners on health and safety or anything pernicious - not today. I mean the ways that people do their jobs better ... like the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who said that he never helped anyone above him in the dotcom hierarchy; he always helped people junior to him. Anyway, partly because I've had to deal with a public relations executive recently (I say "had to" because I basically swore off dealing with PR after I left the FT because so many were unhelpful, poorly informed, or just liars), I have been thinking about the ways people screw up their relationships with journalists, sometimes to the detriment of their employers or clients. I've also been cleaning out my contacts file. Looking through the notes I kept, most people merited a "nice" or no note at all. But a good number got freaked out by just meeting a foreign journalist - not even doing an interview. I share some of these notes here, if not for your amusement, then for insight into how journalists (or maybe it's just I) think:

"A little scary" (human rights activist)
"Sucks. Never around. Never returns phone calls." (can't recall who this was)
"Beautiful eyelashes. Great English. Kind of cute." (senior police officer)
"Allegedly does not have an email account" (Steve Wynn, gambling mogul)
"Condescending. Ex-Goldman. Yuck." (banker)
"[Has a] pet pig." (news assistant)
"Didn't eat anything or say anything." (financial PR)
"'If it rusts, pollutes, or you can eat it, it's mine.'" (Morgan Stanley banker)
"Anal about quotes, but in a good way." (consultant)

The photo is of me in a classic pose from my days as a reporter: juggling too many notebooks and material on the street in Tokyo.

The China Daily on The China Price

Much to my surprise, the China Daily has reviewed my book in a favorable light. The review, published in today's China Daily, argues that "Harney's book certainly has plenty of grim material providing grist for the China-critic mills. But Harney has too much integrity and objectivity as a reporter to altogether ignore the positive side of China's export economy." William Daniel Garst, the reviewer, liked the story of the girls of room 817 (pictured on my Twitter page) and agrees with my argument that the China price is unsustainable. He does take a more sanguine view than I do in the book, where I argue that while China is changing and worker expectations are rising, not much will change until Western consumers do. If anything, the financial crisis has deepened Western consumers' appetite for cheap goods. But recent books like Ellen Ruppel Shell's Cheap, which generated good press coverage, suggest that at least coastal American pundits are willing to discuss the question that lies at the heart of The China Price: are we really okay with prices this low, even if they mean unsafe working conditions, unsafe products and the decampment of our entire manufacturing sector to cheaper locales abroad?

China Price comes to Kansas

I'm just about to go on air on the Heartland Labor Forum, an award-winning radio program about labor issues based in Kansas City that streams live at www.kkfi.org. I'll be talking about shopping for Christmas in view of the kind of widespread labor and environmental abuses I observed in researching my book. As I've always said, the solution is not to boycott China, but to ask more questions about where and how the goods we buy are made. Listen to past programs here and listen to me live here.

China Price featured in Apple Daily

The Apple Daily, Hong Kong's leading daily newspaper, has run a profile of me and the book pegged to the launch of the Chinese edition. I'm in Tokyo to promote the Japanese edition, coming out this week, but if you are reading this in Hong Kong, the December 2 edition of the paper has a piece about me. The Apple Daily's website is here.

China Price named a Best Business Book of 2008

Strategy + Business, the magazine published by consultancy Booz & Company, has named The China Price one of the Best Business Books of 2008 in the category of globalization. "The China Price is a work of reporting," writes Marc Levinson, "and the reporting is extremely good." Noting that the book "carefully destroys many foreign fantasies about doing business in China," he continues, "Even as she vividly reveals the human damage done by China’s double-time march to capitalism, Harney also describes a rapidly changing society in which the abuses of early industrialization are no longer tolerated." All in all, a great review, and an honor to be included on the list. Read the discussion here.

Worth watching: Toxic products in Australia

This evening, Australian broadcaster SBS will air a program that looks into the regulations and controls that exist to protect consumers from toxic or dangerous products - including both food and other goods. I'm on the program, via satellite from Hong Kong, along with victims of faulty products, consumer advocates, importers, and toxicologists. It's a rare intelligent look at these issues from an Australian perspective, one that for once doesn't fall down on political prejudices but focuses on the practical issues before us. Watch the program and read viewers' comments here.

Hot Talk on KSFO

I spent part of my Sunday morning talking to the lovely Barbara Simpson on KSFO-AM in San Francisco. Rare among talk show hosts, Barbara had actually read my book - and it clearly struck a chord. We talked about the human and environmental cost of the China price and a slew of other stuff - infectious diseases, coal, you name it. Barbara doesn't have a podcast of her show, so it seems our moment has passed, but you can read all about her here.

The China Price in Fairfield, Iowa

It's not every day that I get a chance to talk to people in Iowa about China. So I'm thrilled to be appearing on 100.1 KRUU-FM, "the Voice of Fairfield" tomorrow Hong Kong time. I'll be on air with Stuart Tanner, a former BBC filmmaker who has made documentaries about ethnic and religious issues in China, and host James Moore. Listen online on their website or check out James Moore's blog.

Environmental responsibility

So I've been a bit distracted by getting married over the last few weeks. But I'm back and wanted to flag a piece I wrote for YaleGlobal Online. In the piece, which was picked up by the Daily Times in Pakistan, I argue that we should consider our own responsibility as consumers for the kinds of environmental damage we see in China. There is a lot of progress on environmental issues in China today, but a long way to go. And a lot of China that still isn't even on the map of the global supply chain. So it's fair to say that these issues will be around for many years to come. Read my piece here.

China Price in Top Three China Books

While I was out in the bush in Mozambique this week, Anne-Marie Slaughter, the dean of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, was recommending The China Price as one of her top three picks to understand China on National Public Radio. "For every business book goggling at the rate and scale of China's growth," she says, "The China Price is a powerfully needed antidote." Slaughter has just returned from a year living in Shanghai. Listen to her recommendation here.

Three times lucky

In the third article on The China Price in India in a week, The Business Standard ran a review of my book last Friday, calling it an "absorbing read" with "meticulous reporting" and noting "this book is a contrarian offering from the dewy-eyed literature on the China phenomenon." The piece starts: "Nothing has altered global business models quite so dramatically as the Middle Kingdom’s extraordinary skills in manufacturing a vast number of goods at ever-lower prices — the phenomenon that is simply referred to as the China Price. This ability to leverage an enormous population into a competitive advantage has, in turn, created one of the fastest and most revolutionary social transformations in modern history." Read the positive review here.

The high cost of cleaning up

Isabel Hilton, editor of the excellent chinadialogue website, has posted an interview with me about China's emerging environmental issues. We talk about the environmental health crisis and the concept of a "beautiful" law - aspirational, not always respected. As I'm in Tokyo writing this, I'm struck by how few people realize the environmental damage that our passion for cheap goods is causing. Read the interview here.

Women are changing China

World Pulse, a new online magazine about women and children who are changing the world, has done an interview with me for their edition about China. They feature Xie Lihua, a women who edits a magazine for rural Chinese women, AIDS researcher Lichun Tian, Minky Worden of Human Rights Watch and community development specialist Song Qinghua, the wonderful Lu Hongyan or Redbird, and me. It's a huge honor to be considered among such amazing women. Read the interview here.

China out of road with low-cost labor

On the eve of the Beijing Olympics, Business Line, which I now realize is a publication of The Hindu group of newspapers, has run an interview with me about The China Price, noting my comment that China has run out of road with its low-cost labor strategy. I can't stress enough how significant this is for so many industries - I was just talking to someone in the shipping industry who explained that part of the reason that more transshipments are now going to Hong Kong is because of rising labor costs in the mainland. Anyway, in Business Line's print edition, there is a very frightening picture of me, but fortunately, online readers appear to have been spared. Read the interview here.

Isabel Hilton likes The China Price

Isabel Hilton, the highly respected writer and radio journalist, recently recommended The China Price as one of her top three books to read on China in the Observer. She says: "If you want to know where your stuff comes from (luggage, shoes, socks, iPod) this will tell you - and what China"s industrial revolution has done to the environment and the lives and health of the people who make our stuff." Read her recommendation here.

The China Price comes to India

Daily News & Analysis, an Indian English-language newspaper, has run a big piece about The China Price on the front page of their Money section. The piece on the front page starts off with shadow factories, which is great, since few reporters seem to have picked up on this important aspect of the China price. And inside, the paper has devoted its "The Big Picture" section to an interview with me. Read all about it here and here. What's great about an Indian newspaper's interest in these issues is that India is next in line to absorb some of the export processing business. While India is very different from China, in governance, economic structure and culture, the high cost of competitive advantage in today's global supply chains is certainly an issue I would be thinking about if I were an Indian businessman.

The China Price in Women's Wear Daily

Women's Wear Daily ran a full-page interview with me yesterday, packed with quotes from me and the book. "Behind every $2 T-shirt lies the overworked, underpaid human face of a Chinese migrant worker," Lisa Movius, the reporter, wrote from Shanghai. The piece is aimed squarely at the people who really could make a difference in the lives of ordinary Chinese workers: the apparel brands. I would urge all the fashion companies to think about the global consequences of their pursuit of ever-lower prices. Eventually, they are going to run out of road with this strategy. In China, they already have. Read the article online here or pick up a copy on the newsstand.

A Perfect Storm in China

U.S. News and World Report is running two pieces quoting me this week talking about the monumental changes going on in China's manufacturing sector. This is, of course, one of my favorite subjects, and one I don't think the rest of the world has fully digested yet. The author of the two superb pieces, Paul Mooney, quotes me talking about a "perfect storm" hitting Chinese manufacturers. Read the piece on manufacturers disappearing here and another one about the labor shortage in the world's most populous nation here.

Beijing Uncensored

Jocelyn Ford, a journalist I've known and admired since I started studying Japanese, has started a fascinating project on YouTube that is well worth watching. The project, called China For Real, tells the stories of the people you won't see on your TV screen this summer during the Olympics - the people who helped build Beijing, among others. Jocelyn is about as swashbuckling and cool as journalists come - she knows everyone, and not just the CEOs and senior officials. She knows the really interesting people: the people inside the migrant's village, the independent thinker who arrives at parties with a 16-person Big Brother entourage. Her video is an eye-opening introduction to the sides of China you won't see on state-censored television. Check it out here.

If you are unsure whether or not you are a prostitute

I had to include this sign from a restaurant in Shanghai, as reported by Xinhua, the Chinese state-owned news service. All part of China's efforts to be a more rule-by-law country, I guess. Thanks to CSR Asia for pointing it out.

“Zapata’s Mexican Cantina does not sponsor prostitutes at our establishment. If you are prostitute please refrain from entering our garden or restaurant. If you are unsure whether or not you are a prostitute, please ask one of our friendly security guards to sort it out for you. Thanks.”