Kicking America while it's down?

More than a year after the product scandals that shook China's international brand image, Beijing has paid for a TV advertisement intended to put the record straight. The 30-second ad, now playing on CNN and commissioned by the Ministry of Commerce with "participation" (=money) from four industry groups, is already stirring up debate in China. International debate, I'm sure, is not long behind.

Created by DDB Guoan and hailed by unnamed experts in the China Daily as "a PR breakthrough", the ad shows how widespread Chinese-made goods are in everyday Western life. An Ipod is "Made in China with software from Silicon Valley"; a pink dress is "Made in China with French designers", an airplane is "Made in China with engineers from all over the world", running shoes are "Made in China with American Sports Technology".

The ad is fascinating on multiple levels. For one, it's the first attempt I've seen by a Chinese government ministry to defend Chinese products to the English-speaking world using a TV advertisement. I remember covering CNOOC's bid for Unocal and seeing how the Chinese failed to make their case to the Americans. So at first glance, this ad might suggest China had learned its lesson.

But the timing and message of the ad could well be unfortunate. While it's absolutely accurate to say that the world is bringing more of its design and manufacturing to China, I wonder if viewers in America will feel like China is kicking America while it's down. Americans are understandably anxious about our economic prospects right now, and to me at least, this ad seems to touch that nerve. Made in China with American technology? Factually, totally accurate. But to the average American, could it be a reminder of what America no longer does, of the fading of our own industrial glory. And could it even bring to mind some of the less savory ways that China was able to win this business? Its poor track record on the protecting the environment, labor and intellectual property rights and its management of its currency to keep its exports competitively priced, to name a few?

The most disturbing part might well turn out to be the airplane - given the national significance and economic importance of companies like Boeing and Airbus, the obvious military carryovers from the aircraft industry, and China's recent product safety scandals, I'm not sure how comfortable ordinary Americans would be with the idea that China wants to dominate airplane manufacturing the same way it has shoe making. Again, what the ad says is right: China is playing a larger role in airplane manufacturing, and it is doing it with help from foreign engineers.

Still, the commercial demonstrates the challenge China faces in crafting an intelligent message about its products, and the inherent mutual suspicions that lurk within China's relations with its major trading partners. China can speak the truth, as it does in this ad, and it can still strike the wrong chord with some people. China should be able to promote its own products without seeming to do so at the West's expense.

The ad is here and here. What do you think?

China Quality Issues

The University of Southern California's US-China Today has a piece out yesterday on product safety issues in China quoting me and a range of other non-Chinese people. I wish the reporter had talked to an actual factory manager or an actual Chinese person involved in global supply chains to get their perspective. Anyway, the piece is here.

How green is your bamboo keyboard?

One of the issues that has captivated me (and let's be honest, lots of other people) for a while is how green products that say they're green really are. A lot of products marketed as green don't actually provide us the information to prove it, and green products are so in fashion these days that suppliers in China, Taiwan and elsewhere go to very un-green lengths to create "green" products. And just because a product carries a green label doesn't mean it's actually good for you. Over on the excellent New Energy and Environment Digest, my friend Elizabeth Balkan wrote about bamboo keyboards earlier this month. Her post reminded me of the debate on bamboo flooring, and my overall interest in building materials (stifle that yawn!). Bamboo materials, it has been pointed out, do not yet carry any certification like the Forest Stewardship Council. That's before we discuss quality and safety problems such as those raised in the recent lawsuits about Chinese drywall and Paul Midler's excellent book Poorly Made in China. I'm not suggesting that children are going to spent their days licking the keys, but given the above, I do wonder what else is in that bamboo keyboard.