There was a time when you were risking having four tires slashed, if not your neck, if you drove a foreign, especially a , car to work at one of the Big Three’s auto factories in Detroit. Many of us remember the horrible murder of Chinese-American Vincent Chin in 1982.
Ironically, he was beaten to death by a Chrysler worker who apparently thought he was Japanese, and was enraged at them because he thought they were stealing our jobs.
China was just beginning to develop then, and nobody thought of it as a country that would ever compete economically with the United States.
Well, what a difference a few decades make. These days, those autoworkers that are left mostly seem grateful to have any job at all, whoever provides it. “There’s Japanese owners, there’s Chinese owners,” an autoworker in Port Huron told the New York Times last week.
“As long as they are making it here, I can’t complain,” the man said. “It’s still paying our wages.” That worker probably knows that the concept of an “American car” as opposed to a “foreign car” is hopelessly out of date. Chrysler is a division of Fiat, and General Motors now sells more cars in China than it does in the United States.
Most cars are filled with parts made in a variety of countries. Is a Ford made in Mexico more of an American car than a Honda made in Ohio by American workers?
Your answer is as good as mine. The fact is that the automotive industry is a global industry, and many countries’ economies are intertwined. Last Thursday, July 12, the New York Times had a story that I think everyone in this state should read.
The headline said “Trump’s Trade War With China Pierces the Heart of Michigan,” and the story made it clear that the tariffs the president is imposing will hurt our auto industry more than it does China, and is likely to cost Michigan jobs and drive up the prices of cars.
I’m not saying this country doesn’t have some legitimate beefs with China, a nation that has been known to steal technology and trade secrets, and which in the past has paid scant attention to little things like copyrights and patents.
Yet as an executive quoted here observes, “the automotive industry is a global industry.” Ana Swanson, the author of the piece, notes that in recent years, “Beijing has steadily pumped billions of dollars’ worth of investment into Michigan, buying crumbling factories, building new ones and supporting more than 10,000 jobs in the state.”
But Swanson adds, “where Michigan sees an economic partner, President Trump sees an economic enemy.” He is determined to lower the trade deficit. But if he does so by hurting our nation’s economy, that may be a Pyrrhic victory indeed. The fact is that China has other options.
According to the Times, at least one major research and development project the Chinese had planned to put in Michigan was moved to Germany instead.
Long ago, when President Nixon made his historic first trip to China, Chairman Mao said he felt the alliance made sense because they were an advancing and we a declining power. Wouldn’t it be ironic if this president helped make that prophecy of our decline come true?
