S.A. Examine
Friday, Sept 28, 1973

Look for Big Boost in Chinese Imports

Phyllis Battelle

        A man who certainly should know about such matters predicts that “within three years, imports of fabrics, china, cameras, radios and TV sets from the People’s Republic of China will supplant those which we are now buying from Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea.
        “Japanese labor is getting too high-priced. Already, China makes cameras equivalent in quality to Japan’s, at 33 percent lower prices. China’s silk and wool garments are excellent – and I foresee a big future for their handicrafts, foodstuffs and electronic equipment; Japan and Hong Kong have simple priced themselves out of the market in these lines, leaving the field open to China with its much lower production costs.”
        The authority for these forecasts is David Buxbaum, lawyer, businessman, and expert in Chinese law, language and custom. Buxbaum is president of May Lee Industries, Inc., was one of a handful of businessmen invited to the Canton Trade Fair a year ago, and it was he who signed the first contract by an American (to import $11-million worth of carpets) since the Communist takeover of China.
        “The Chinese,” he says, “are very careful, very good business people. Not as aggressive as the Japanese, but more individualistic and extremely dependable. They perform when they say they’ll perform, pay when they say they’ll pay, deliver when they say they’ll deliver.” But don’t worry about the Japanese, he says: “They will lose but in the market they have cornered for so long – but they are clever; they’re getting strongly into auto production, steel processing and high technology now. a phenomenally resilient people.”
        The American people know little, and understand less, about the Chinese in 1973. We tend to think of them as a mass of agrarian ping-pong fan in coolie pants and Mao jackets.” Buxbaum says that, on the contrary, “the standard of living in China is quite high, relatively speaking.”
        “People not only have enough to wear (and they do not only wear uniforms, girls have colorful blouses and skirts) but their housing is adequate and they have bicycles, radios, watches, and are beginning to buy cameras and televisions sets.”