How will its strategic trading partners respond?
by Alex Roy & Veronica Gotelli editor@myredstar.com Since the appearance of free trade, the world economy has seen both winners and losers in the globalization game. Today’s world market demands Western quality control and efficiency at Asian production costs. Once built on the sparse selection of silk and burlap, China’s textile industry has expanded to include all world textiles: cotton yarn, cotton fabric, wool fabric, silk fabric, and synthetic/chemical fibers. Though the days of the Sino-Parthian ‘Silk Road’ have long since passed, our high-tech era now sees China return to center stage. Not just as a strong contender, but rather the world leader of textile & garment exports. Consider the numbers; in 2004 alone 1.7 million tons of yarn products and 4.02 billion meters of fabric (valued at 53.28 billion USD), passed through Chinese ports, accounting for 25% of the world’s total export quantities and 20% of the nation’s commodity exports. However, up until China’s 2002 entry into th
