CBQ, Inc. (China Business Quotient) (fka CBQI)

[Da !]

Fritz, your conceptions about imported trade goods are endearing yet antiquated. You may be too young to remember when the phrase "Made in Japan" was a joke, but I'm not. People identified Japanese goods with cheap toys. Then, all of a sudden they were dominating the electronics and automobile markets. Granted, this is a new millenium. Undoubtedly the Chinese economic success story will differ from Japan's, but in a few years I guarantee that you will not think of cheap plastic McDonalds toys when you think of Chinese goods.

More information from the ITA web site:

Electronics and machinery sales drove much of the boom in China's exports. Accounting for about two-fifths of all exports, the value of these products increased 36 percent in 2000. High-tech exports – fueled mainly by indirect investment from Taiwan---grew by 50 percent, up three times from 1995. With this strong performance, China was the world's third largest computer hardware exporter in 2000. Garment, raw textile, shoe, and toy exports---long the engines of Chinese export growth---underperformed the average increase in overseas sales.

Exported Value Percent Percent
US$ bil. of total change

Overall 249.2 100.0 27.8

Elect./machinery 105.3 42.3 36.9
Hi tech 37.0 14.8 50.0
Garments 36.0 14.4 19.8
Textiles/yarn 16.2 6.5 23.7
Shoes 9.9 4.0 13.5
Toys 5.6 2.2 9.1
Plastic products 4.9 2.0 24.9
Travel/suitcases 3.8 1.5 13.6