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Dell To Leave China For India
halfEvilTech writes "India's Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, told the Indian press that Dell chairman Michael Dell assured him that Dell was moving $25 billion in factories from China to India. Original motives were cited for environmental concerns. But later details come up as to Dell wanting a 'safer environment conductive to enterprise.'"
Dell spokesperson denied the story this morning. Who's editing today, me?
a 'safer environment conductive to enterprise'
Read as "safer from industrial espionage and nationalization"
Oh wait, that was their Customer Service department. I wonder how that experiment went ;-)
"Klaatu, verada, necktie!" -Ash
India is a democracy with a much better record of treating its citizens as free human beings. It also doesn't seem to have the taste for global imperialism that China does. In China, you can disappear for protesting on the street. In China, you put in an application if you'd like to move to another city. In China, the internet is filtered. India should be a great friend of the United States. Americans have a lot in common with them, and in that part of the world, America could use more friends.
India safer? In some ways I suppose but it depends on what you are talking about. The Indian government is less draconian and less likely to try to compete with you. Expropriation is probably less of a concern in India. The rupee has somewhat better convertibility than the yuan and currency flows are less stringently controlled. Plus there is a much larger contingent of English speakers than in China. India's legal system is slightly less hostile to foreigners than China's though both are to be avoided if possible. Freedom of speech is obviously better in India though China doesn't have quite the death grip on speech everyone here seems to think they do.
On the other hand, India's infrastructure is badly trailing that of China, there is less foreign capital to improve things, corruption is a huge issue in India, business regulations are as bad if not worse than China, and transport costs are somewhat worse. Despite the number of engineers, India has less experience with certain types of manufacturing. India is a democracy (which is good) but that doesn't always make doing business there easier - in fact it often makes it harder due to populist policies.
There has been something of a "gotta be in China" attitude but China isn't always the best place to make things. There are places with cheaper labor (Vietnam for instance) and places with better logistics (Singapore) and places with expertise silos (Japan) that might make better choices. Plus betting everything on China is risky by itself. Doing business in China is hard, risky, requires constant oversight, and a long term perspective. Anyone thinking they can just produce stuff cheaply in China with little difficulty is going to lose a lot of money very quickly.
I've done global sourcing in both countries - it's difficult no matter which way you go. I've personally been in a factory in Chengdu where parts for Dell computers were being assembled. Moving production from China to India might be a good idea from a diversification standpoint (bad idea to do everything in China) but it's only marginally safer in my opinion depending on exactly what one means by safer.
When since the death of Mao and the rise of the "Gang of Seven" has anyone thought China was Communist? That is like calling the old Soviet Empire a Communist state. They are a totalitarian dictatorship. Just 'cause they call themselves commies, that doesn't mean they are. To quote I-don't-remember-who (maybe Hunter Thompson?) "Communism has not been tried and failed, Communism has not been tried."
Please don't dominate the rap, Jack, if you got nothin' new to say.
taiwan is an autonomous, rebel, province of china. they don't answer to beijing. the only reason most conuntries don't recognize taiwan as independent is to avoid diplomatic tensions with beijing.
if you hate mainland china's abuses, buy from taiwan. that's money that doesn't go to beijing spend in censorship.
What ? Me, worry ?
You may not realize this, but Taiwan is part of China.
The truth of that statement depends very much on whom you ask. As things stand Taiwan is de-facto an independent country. The People's Republic of China (mainland) maintain that Taiwan is a part of China, whereas the Republic of China (Taiwan) maintains that they are actually the legitimate government of China and that the PROC has no sovereign authority. However Taiwan has had to take great care to not antagonize the PROC due to the threat of invasion.
In other words, it's complicated.
It is my pleasure to be helping you today. I understand you are trying to move your factories from China to India. Just a moment and I will bring up your account. Ok I will look up moving your factories from China to India in our knowledge-base. Have you tried plugging in your factories?
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
No, the mainland is an autonomous, rebel area controlled by Communist bandits. Taiwan is the seat of the Chinese government.
Taiwan follows the old government that existed prior to the "cultural revolution" that spawned the current Chinese Communist Party government.
When you say cultural revolution in the context of China, you are actually talking about a fairly specific event that occurred long after the civil war that resulted in the schism between Taiwan and mainland China. The Cultural Revolution occurred in the late 60s whereas the KMT's retreat to Taiwan occurred around 1950. The communist party in China preceded the cultural revolution.
I could just as easily say that the six counties of Northern Ireland are controlled by Monarchist bandits and that the national capital of Northern Ireland is Dublin.
Obviously we're talking about who has the monopoly of violence in the case of the ROC v. the PRC. For all intents and purposes they're separate countries, but if you want to play that game the Communists successfully overthrew the Nationalists quite a long time ago. It was a net negative for the people of China, but it is an accurate representation of the facts.