• Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Supplier Directory
  • SCB YouTube
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Logout
  • My Profile
  • 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
  • THINK TANK
  • WEBINARS
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Webinar Library
  • 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
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

    Foxconn to Use 'Foxbots' to Assemble Devices from Apple, Others in China

Bloomberg

Germany to Introduce Cheap Nationwide Public Transport From May

More from this author

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter!

Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.

Popular Stories

  • A PERSON HOLDS UP A TABLET COMPUTER IN A WAREHOUSE, SUPER-IMPOSED BY A GRAPHIC SHOWING A COMPLEX WEB OF SUPPLY CHAIN ELEMENTS

    Three Post-Pandemic Actions for Repairing Global Supply Chains

    Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
  • A MAN IN A SUIT SHAKES HANDS WITH A WOMAN IN A HARD HAT, NEXT TO A STACK OF CONTAINERS

    Three Procurement Technology Evolutions for 2023

    Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
  • DOCUMENTS BEARING THE INSIGNIA OF US CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION LIE ON A TABLE

    New CBP Regs Call for Greater Diligence by Brokers in Reporting Security Breaches

    Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
  • The blank stare of a child's eye who is standing behind what appears to be a wooden frame

    The Alarming Continued Rise of Modern Slavery in Supply Chains: How Procurement Can Help Reverse the Trend

    Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
  • A GROUP OF WORKERS RANGED IN AN OFFICE, OF DIVERSE RACE, GENDER, AGE AND PHYSICAL ABILITY

    Podcast | The Supply Chain Workforce of the Future Is Already Here

    HR & Labor Management

Digital Edition

Scb nov 2022 sm

2022 Supply Chain Innovator of the Year

VIEW THE LATEST ISSUE

Case Studies

  • New Revenue for Cloud-Based TMS that Embeds Orderful’s Modern EDI Platform

  • Convenience Store Client Maximizes Profit and Improves Customer Service

  • A Digitally Native Footwear Brand Finds Rapid Fulfillment

  • Expanding Apparel Brand Scales Seamlessly with E-Commerce Technology

  • How a Global LSP Scaled its Security Program and Won More Business

Visit Our Sponsors

Orderful Yang Ming Alithya
Barcoding Blue Yonder BNSF Logistics
CoEnterprise Data Capture Deposco
E2open GAINSystems Generix
Geodis GEP GreyOrange
Here Honeywell Intelligrated IFM
Infor Inmar Keelvar
Kinaxis Korber Lean Solutions Group 2H
Liberty SBF Locus Robotics Logility
LogistiVIEW Lucas Systems MCA Connect
MPO Nvidia Old Dominion
OpenText ORTEC Overhaul
Parsyl PMMI QIMA
Redwood Logistics Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash Saddle Creek Logistics
Schneider Dedicated Setlog Holding AG Ship4WD
Shipwell Tecsys TGW Systems
Thomson Reuters Tive Trailer Bridge
Vecna Robotics Verity
Verusen
  • 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 ©2023 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