Control Engineering

Link This | Email this | Blog This | Comments (0)

How China is changing the world
March 17, 2008

If you aren't sure how the world is changing as a result of the massive industrial development in China, you need to pick up a copy of the March 15-21 issue of The Economist, now on newsstands. Or you can read the same material online. The issue has the headline "The new colonialists--A 14-page special report on China's thirst for resources." (The Economist is worth reading every week, arguably the best news magazine in the world.)

Here's the opening paragraph: "There is no exaggerating China's hunger for commodities. The country accounts for about a fifth of the world's population, yet it gobbles up more than half of the world's pork, half of its cement, a third of its steel, and over a quarter of its aluminum. It is spending 35 times as much on imports of soya beans and crude oil  as it did in 1999, and 23 times as much importing copper--indeed, China has swallowed over four-fifths of the increase in the world's copper supply since 2000."

I haven't read the whole series of articles yet, but what I have read boggles the mind. As much as China has changed the rest of the world, the most upheaval is within the country itself. The internal displacements and environmental issues are without parallel. All I can say is read the report. If you work in a process industry, your company has been changed by what's going on over there, even if you don't see a direct connection. Read this and you will understand better.

Posted by Peter Welander on March 17, 2008 | Comments (0)