There has been a considerable amount of news coverage about the Chinese labor industry lately. Basically the story is that China is finally running out of cheap labor. There has been a myth perpetuated over the past decade that China had an unlimited amount of cheap labor and that the delightfully cheap Chinese goods could keep pouring into the US economy. However as the new generation rises up, they are requiring higher pay or they are moving to rural China. Recently, factories have had to increase wages by roughly 20 percent just to fill labor demands. The new youth of China are realizing that they don’t want to work in sweatshops for pennies per day. Therefore the hypothesis is that China is planning to transition to a service based economy as opposed to a cheap goods economy. China would function more like India whereby they would complete tasks such as web development or telemarketing from overseas.
How does this relate to the US military? Well, frankly I think the US government has put up with some nefarious activity from China in the past because they have always been our meal ticket. However, the Chinese government is one of the main sources backing this transition from within the economy. US businesses will undoubtedly suffer and have to adapt because of this economical change.
So here is the question: will US relations with China deteriorate if our economy becomes less dependent / prosperous because of China?
My theory is that the US government will put up with less if China is not such an integral component of our economy.
