• Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Supplier Directory
  • SCB YouTube
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Logout
  • My Profile

  • CORONAVIRUS
  • LOGISTICS
    • Air Cargo
    • All Logistics
    • Express/Small Shipments
    • Facility Location Planning
    • Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
    • Global Gateways
    • Global Logistics
    • Last Mile Delivery
    • Logistics Outsourcing
    • LTL/Truckload Services
    • Ocean Transportation
    • Rail & Intermodal
    • Reverse Logistics
    • Service Parts Management
    • Transportation & Distribution
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • All Technology
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud & On-Demand Systems
    • Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
    • ERP & Enterprise Systems
    • Forecasting & Demand Planning
    • Global Trade Management
    • Inventory Planning/ Optimization
    • Product Lifecycle Management
    • Sales & Operations Planning
    • SC Finance & Revenue Management
    • SC Planning & Optimization
    • Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
    • Supply Chain Visibility
    • Transportation Management
  • GENERAL SCM
    • Business Strategy Alignment
    • Education & Professional Development
    • Global Supply Chain Management
    • Global Trade & Economics
    • HR & Labor Management
    • Quality & Metrics
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • SC Security & Risk Mgmt
    • Supply Chains in Crisis
    • Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility
  • WAREHOUSING
    • All Warehouse Services
    • Conveyors & Sortation
    • Lift Trucks & AGVs
    • Order Fulfillment
    • Packaging
    • RFID, Barcode, Mobility & Voice
    • Robotics
    • Warehouse Management Systems
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Aerospace & Defense
    • Apparel
    • Automotive
    • Chemicals & Energy
    • Consumer Packaged Goods
    • E-Commerce/Omni-Channel
    • Food & Beverage
    • Healthcare
    • High-Tech/Electronics
    • Industrial Manufacturing
    • Pharmaceutical/Biotech
    • Retail
  • REGIONS
    • Asia Pacific
    • Canada
    • China
    • Europe
    • Latin America
    • Middle East/Africa
    • North America
  • THINK TANK
  • WEBINARS
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
  • PODCASTS
  • VIDEOS
  • WHITEPAPERS
Home » From Adobe Walls to A.I. Factories: China's 40-Year Transformation

From Adobe Walls to A.I. Factories: China's 40-Year Transformation

From Adobe Walls to A.I. Factories: China's 40-Year Transformation
December 18, 2018
Bloomberg

Forty years ago, 18 villagers of Xiaogang in Anhui Province banded together to disobey the orders of China’s government, risking their lives by deciding to farm individually instead of collectively.

Now, they’re celebrated as the pioneers of gaige kaifang 改革开放, or Reform and Opening Up — the process of turning China into a market-based economy that celebrates its 40th anniversary this week.

As part of the official program marking the anniversary that will culminate in Beijing on Dec. 18th, the government invited media to tour locations selected for their significance in showing how China has transformed in that time.

The anniversary comes at an awkward time. China’s trade war with the U.S. is throwing a searchlight on the industrial and political ambitions of President Xi Jinping’s increasingly authoritarian government.

This is the version of Reform and Opening Up that the Communist Party wants you to see.

Xiaogang itself has been transformed into a center of official patriotic education, with the villagers championed for their courage in subverting a collectivist system still reeling from the excesses of the Mao era.

The next stop on the tour fast-forwards to a showroom of advanced consumerist culture and an example of China’s industrial future — the Geely Automobile Experience Hall and a robotic solar-panel factory in Hangzhou.

Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd., which now owns Volvo AB, and produces the iconic London taxi, is pushing into electric vehicles — a sector in which China is well placed to lead the global market.

Automated production, with only limited human involvement, is on display at Chint Group, a maker of solar panels and other electric equipment. Look closer, and the globalization of China’s industrial sector is clear: Foreign-bought technology, like the robot arms from Swiss maker ABB Group.

If the ambitions of Xi’s Made in China 2025 program come to pass, those robot arms will be domestically produced in the future.

The plan’s goal of making China self-sufficient in microchips, robots, aerospace and other key technologies is seen by U.S. President Donald Trump and others as a direct challenge to U.S. dominance in many of those industries.
 
The official version of China’s development then passes through Alibaba Group’s campus in Hangzhou. At the e-commerce giant — a Chinese version of Amazon.com Inc. and Ebay Inc. combined — an exhibition shows a version of the company’s origin, where Jack Ma and associates visit the Great Wall outside Beijing after a failed venture and vow future success to each other.

The company, which accounts for about three quarters of the nation’s online retail sales, has by now a semi-official role — displayed through their use of technology to manage Hangzhou’s city traffic and other functions. Employees zip around the campus on smartphone-rented bicycles, another icon of China’s new economy.

China’s Artificial Intelligence ambitions are by now well known — it wants to become the world’s primary AI hub by 2030. Judging by the site selected by the tour’s planners though, that dream is still in the making. Hangzhou’s “AI Town” was largely deserted.

The tour ends in Shenzhen, a one-time fishing village and now megacity that is most closely identified with the success of Reform and Opening Up. Here, the message is again one of industrial self-sufficiency.

At the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station, officials explain that their first nuclear power plant built in China was constructed with more than 99 percent imported technology. Now, the newest generation reactors are more than 90 percent domestic, and China is an exporter of nuclear technology.

That’s the arc that the Communist Party presents as the success of Reform and Opening Up. The outcome of the current confrontation with the U.S. will have a lot to do with whether it can continue.

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED VIDEOS

Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain) Technology Global Trade & Economics Robotics Automotive Chemicals & Energy High-Tech/Electronics Industrial Manufacturing China
KEYWORDS Automation & Robotics Automotive Big Data/IOT Chemicals & Energy China Global Trade & Economics High-Tech/Electronics Industrial Manufacturing Technology
  • Related Articles

    As China Reopens, Africa’s Woes Threaten to Starve Its Factories

    China Pushes Factories to Resume Even as Death Toll Rises

Bloomberg

From Sneakers to Teslas, China Lockdowns Upend Global Supply Chains

More from this author

Wake up to live
“Supply Chains in Crisis”
updates and the latest Supply Chain News!

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.

Popular Stories

  • silicon wafer

    Fate of U.S. Chipmaking Looks More Like Fantasy

    Technology
  • Truckers Protest

    Will Truckers’ Protests Be the Thing That Finally Breaks Supply Chains?

    Logistics
  • digital work

    Could Data Standards Solve the Supply Chain Crisis?

    Logistics
  • gas

    Supply Worries Send Gasoline Prices to Record Highs

    Global Supply Chain Management
  • Mobile App

    Podcast | Companies Are on a Shopping Spree for Supply Chain Software

    Technology

Digital Edition

Scb feb 2022 sm

2022 Supply Chain Management Resource Guide

VIEW THE LATEST ISSUE

Case Studies

  • 3PL Doubles Productivity With Robots to Fulfill Medical Supply Orders

  • E-Commerce Company Cuts Order Fulfillment Time by 40%

  • Fashion Retailer Halves Fulfillment Time With Omichannel Automation

  • Distributor Scales Business by Integrating Warehouse Automaton Software

  • Fast-Growing Fashion Brand Scales E-Commerce Fulfillment With Whiplash

Visit Our Sponsors

Yang Ming Alithya Barcoding
Blue Yonder BNSF Logistics Generix
GEP GIB USA GreyOrange
Here Honeywell Intelligrated Inmar
Keelvar Kinaxis Korber
Liberty SBF Locus Robotics Lucas Systems
Nvidia Old Dominion Parsyl
Redwood Logistics Saddle Creek Logistics Schneider Dedicated
Setlog Holding AG Ship4WD Shipwell
Tecsys TGW Systems Thomson Reuters
Tive Trailer Bridge Vecna Robotics
Whiplash    
  • More From SCB
    • Featured Content
    • Video Library
    • Think Tank Blog
    • SupplyChainBrain Podcast
    • Whitepapers
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
  • Digital Offerings
    • Digital Issue
    • Subscribe
    • Manage Your Subscription
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Events Calendar
    • SCB's Great Supply Chain Partners
    • Supplier Directory
    • Case Study Showcase
    • Supply Chain Innovation Awards
    • 100 Great Partners Form
  • SCB Corporate
    • Advertise on SCB.COM
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • Data Sharing Opt-Out

All content copyright ©2022 Keller International Publishing Corp All rights reserved. No reproduction, transmission or display is permitted without the written permissions of Keller International Publishing Corp

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing