A British customer bought an iPhone set, in which he found a few photos of a woman worker on the assembly line of what obviously was the plant producing the mobile phones.
Instead of feeling angry at the manufacturer's mistake, the customer posted the photographs on the Internet. There was soon an online search for the girl. It turned out that the photos were shot as a test of Apple's new 3G handset in a plant in Shenzhen but the tester apparently forgot to delete the pictures from the phone's memory.
The image of the smiling Chinese girl soon became popular with netizens in what the world media called an "iPhone-girl frenzy". The girl's radiant smile plus her status as a worker was undoubtedly the main reason accounting for the worldwide attention. The round-faced girl grinning with white, neat teeth may not be the prettiest type of Chinese women but is definitely lovely and healthily good-looking.
Commodities made in China can be found in almost every corner of the world but it was probably the first time ever that consumers at the other side of the globe have seen a Chinese worker who hand-assembled their home appliances. That gave them a real sense, and a happy reminder, of globalization.
In recent years, the omnipresent "Made in China" has been criticized in some parts of the world as a synonym for job opportunity robber, child labor abuser and environment polluter and a symbol of the "China threat". It is actually a false story circulated to stay further and further away from the truth.
This columnist does not intend to discuss all the accusations made against China's exported products but wants to say a few words on the relationship between Chinese and the world economies.
Since it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, China has become the world's fourth largest economy and the third biggest importer/exporter. In its World Economic Outlook and Global Financial Stability Report published last year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pointed out that the Chinese economy accounted for only 4 percent of the world economy but contributed nearly one-third to the global economic growth. Of this contribution, consumer goods made up the bulk part.
Inexpensive Chinese goods have greatly benefited consumers throughout the world, especially those in the United States, Europe and Japan, the largest importers of "Made in China". American economist Gary Clyde Hufbauer once made a calculation on how much money Chinese goods had saved for American families. He found that each household saved more than $500 in 2003 through buying Chinese products. It amounted to the benefit President George W. Bush planned to bring to American families through a tax reduction program.
This is a proof of the positive role of globalization, in which China played an import part. Are cheap Chinese goods not a boon but rather a drawback for common people in the world?
While contributing to the stability and growth of the global economy, Chinese people improved their livelihood standards. They know they have benefited from the process of economic globalization. But they also hope to see economic advancement in other countries, because they know that no nation in the world, China included, can fare well without common prosperity of the global economy. That is why they believe in "One World, One Dream", as was best illustrated in the recently held 29th Olympic Games in Beijing.
The smiling "iPhone Girl" probably best represents the present mindset of the Chinese people - confident, full of hope for the future and friendly to the rest of the world.
E-mail: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 09/03/2008 page8)
