With the rapid development of China's economy, international investment has poured into China. From textiles and automobile manufacturing to high-tech electronic products, multinational companies have moved their production bases from the United States, Japan, China and Taiwan Province Province, and even Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia to Chinese mainland. The topic of "China becoming the factory of the world" has become the focus of discussion and debate in the media, academia, politics and business circles at home and abroad. In 200 1 year, the white paper published by the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry first proposed that "China becomes the factory of the world". Some people even compare this development to the reorganization of the world economy caused by the transfer of the "world factory" from Britain to the United States more than 100 years ago, and think that this is a turning point for China to catch up with the United States in the future. However, the author believes that before studying this issue, we should first understand where the "world factory" comes from, how to treat the new connotation of "world factory" under economic globalization, and should focus on analyzing what position China is in the current international division of labor system, what sense China should become, and how China should actively integrate into the global production system.

First, the origin of the "world factory"

"World Factory", another word related to it is "World Factory". At present, whether China is the factory (workshop) of the world is mentioned in scholars' works or news media reports, these two terms are basically mixed and rarely defined.

Looking back at history, during the Industrial Revolution, Lancashire in the northeast of England was called the "world factory", and then Britain became recognized as the "world factory". This is relative to the prevailing "world agriculture" at that time. With the advancement of world industrialization, "world agriculture" no longer exists, and the meaning of "world factory" is gradually replaced by "world factory". When it comes to the later United States and Japan, we call them more "world factories" or "centers of world economic growth". Per capita GDP can only reflect a country's own economic growth stage, and the "world factory" must consider a country in the whole world economy. Those small countries with a population of less than100000 may never become "world factories".

Since 18 the first industrial revolution in the 1930s, a series of major technological inventions such as spinning machine, multi-spindle spinning machine and steam engine have been born in Britain. With the introduction of British machines into the European continent and the combination with many local technological innovations, France, Germany and even the United States on the other side of the Atlantic have set off the climax of the industrial revolution. Around 1860, British industrial development reached its peak, and domestic and foreign trade expanded rapidly, becoming a world-famous "world workshop" and the largest colonial empire. In the 20th century, the global manufacturing center gradually moved to the United States. With the appearance of T- Ford cars, electrostatic precipitators, refrigerators, air conditioners and other civilian products, the United States became the most important producer of automobiles and household appliances in the world after the First World War. After World War II, Japan began its economic revival from the ruins of the war and realized heavy industrialization in the 1960s. In 1970s and 1980s, "Made in Japan" swept the world, and the crown of "World Factory" was transferred to Japan.

Second, the new meaning of "world factory" under economic globalization

Economic globalization refers to the economic activities and processes of all countries in the world, which are all brought into a global network with communication technology and network technology as the link, and seek the best allocation of resources on a global scale. Since 1990s, computer technology and communication technology have developed rapidly, and information globalization and networking have begun to take shape. The global high-speed transportation network connected by aviation industry, ocean transportation industry and expressway network has also begun to take shape, and the process of economic globalization has obviously accelerated. Under the background of economic globalization, "world factory" has a new connotation different from the past. It is more objective to analyze the problem of "China World Factory" from the perspective of international division of labor.

Economic globalization makes the world economy allocate resources in a global map, showing strong economic vitality. In line with this trend, the world is experiencing an unprecedented large-scale division of labor. On the one hand, through the rapid growth of international trade, the number of international division of labor has increased rapidly; On the other hand, the pattern of international division of labor has undergone important changes. From the global division of labor in different industries, to the global division of labor within industries, and then to the global division of labor within enterprises. With multinational corporations as the carrier, the global flow of capital, talents and technology is profoundly changing the world economic structure. With the development of multinational companies, the international division of labor has entered a new stage, and the "world factory" has a broader connotation, which can no longer be directly and simply equated with the country's economic status and international competitiveness. The latter depends on a country's position in the global international division of labor.

According to its position in the international division of labor, "world factories" can be divided into three categories. One is the "world factory" for processing materials. Because of the cheap labor in developing countries, multinational companies regard developing countries as the production and processing bases of industrial products. This "world factory" is at the lowest end of the international division of labor in the production value chain; The second category is that the procurement of raw materials and the manufacturing of spare parts are mainly localized, and multinational companies control R&D and marketing networks. This type is higher than the first one, but it still belongs to the "world factory" of production workshop; The third is a sales network with R&D capability and well-known brands, which controls the international market and manufactures locally, but also purchases globally, thus realizing the optimal allocation of resources. This kind of "world factory" can obtain the maximum economic benefit of the production chain. Only by becoming the third kind of "world factory" can we truly become an economy that has an important impact on the world economy.

Thirdly, the realistic development of China's manufacturing industry and its position in the international division of labor.

Under the background of economic globalization, capital must have the lowest production cost. The places with the highest capital profit rate are concentrated. The international division of labor has developed from vertical division to horizontal division, and now it has entered the network division of labor. Multinational companies combine capital with other production factors (labor is the main aspect) in all aspects of production on a global scale, and China's advantages in processing and manufacturing attract global multinational companies to be optimistic about China.

As a rapidly developing country, China has many incomparable advantages in developing manufacturing industry: low labor cost in China; China's labor force has a high quality and is constantly improving; At present, the infrastructure bottleneck that plagues the development of manufacturing industry has been basically eliminated; China has a strong industrial supporting capacity; China has a vast domestic market; China has a stable social and political environment ...

Statistics show that since the reform and opening up, the growth rate of China's manufacturing industry ranks first in the world. Among them, the industrial production index of 1985- 1990 increased by 1. 86 times, while that of China in 199 1- 1996 increased by 3.75 times, while the growth of other manufacturing countries in the world, such as the United States and Japan, was relatively low. During the period of 1980- 1997, the proportion of China in the added value of the world's manufacturing industry increased from1.4% to 5.9%, with an average annual growth rate of about 0.26 percentage points, which shows that China manufacturing has increasingly become a new force in the world. After more than ten years of rapid development, China has become one of the world's largest producers of many important industrial products, and the output of more than 65,438+000 kinds of finished products, including household appliances manufacturing, ranks first in the world. Communication equipment, textile, medicine, mechanical equipment, chemical industry and more than ten industries.

However, there are still many disadvantages in China's manufacturing industry: few world-famous brands belonging to China, high logistics cost, scattered logistics enterprises, weak infrastructure and unreasonable talent structure. Compared with industrialized countries, there is also a big gap in scale and quality.

At present, China is only engaged in labor-intensive industries such as textiles and clothing. Textile industries such as daily necessities, as well as labor-intensive and technology-intensive assembly and processing industries such as household appliances and computer parts, can be said to have become world factories, that is, the first and second types of "world factories", but in the capital-intensive and technology-intensive manufacturing fields, they do not have the scale and level to become "world factories". Moreover, although the output of manufactured goods in China is quite large, the economic benefits obtained are not high. Under the background of economic globalization, it is the multinational companies in developed countries that can get the greatest economic benefits. Developed countries try their best to participate in and seize high-tech and high-value-added links in various industries, and at the same time transfer low-tech and low-value-added links to other countries with lower development ladder, thus completing the separation and transfer of industrial value chain and ensuring the maximization of interests and benefits. For example, American multinational companies mainly put the technological process of processing and assembly in China, and the key value growth links such as R&D and sales in China, which shows that China is at a low level in the global production system constructed by multinational companies. Therefore, in order to become the third type of "world factory", China must continue to maintain its comparative advantage, continuously narrow the gap between technical level and production scale, and enhance its competitive advantage.

Fourth, China should actively integrate into the global production system.

With the deepening of economic globalization, the world manufacturing industry in the 265,438+0 century is facing a profound strategic restructuring. The United States, Europe, Japan and other developed manufacturing countries are trying to maintain their high-tech monopoly position, and at the same time, they are carrying out a new round of optimal allocation of manufacturing resources on a global scale, with the ultimate goal of reducing production costs and improving market competitiveness. The large-scale transfer of manufacturing industry in the world provides a rare opportunity for China to develop its manufacturing industry by using its vast market and cheap labor. In the process of opening to the outside world, developed countries and regions have successively transferred labor-intensive processing and manufacturing industries to the coastal areas of China, and then transferred labor-intensive high-tech manufacturing industries such as electronic devices, communications and computer assembly to China, and transferred some capital-intensive heavy chemical industries such as petrochemicals to China. At the same time, the withdrawal of developed countries from some industries has made room for China's industrialization. China should seize the opportunity of international industrial transfer and take advantage of various resources, including capital, technology, talents and management. Accelerate the industrialization of traditional industries and the leap-forward development of knowledge-based economy industries such as information industry and biotechnology industry, and actively integrate into the global production system.

Chinese enterprises should actively participate in the global cooperation of R&D, find out the "blind spots", avoid developing some products that are quite mature abroad at home, promote the introduction, digestion, absorption and innovation of technology in by going up one flight of stairs, let enterprises stand at the global height and make their own understanding and judgment on the development of world technology according to their own ideas, so as to make the level of technology development and introduction higher.

Transnational industrial transfer is a two-way behavior, and the general trend of world economic development in the future is the continuous strengthening of economic integration and informatization. If China wants to make full use of this trend and take the road of openness, competition and development, large and medium-sized enterprises in China must take the grand strategy of internationalization. With the deepening of economic globalization, whoever can make full use of the international market will develop faster and become more competitive. On the basis of attracting a lot of foreign investment, China should gradually cultivate and strengthen its own multinational companies, enter a new stage of attracting foreign investment and foreign investment at the same time, and gain more benefits in the global production value chain.

Whether China can become a "world factory" is not a goal, but an objective development process, which is closely related to the global networked production of multinational corporations and China's position in the international division of labor. China should not only pursue "Made in China", but should become the focus of the world economy like Britain and the United States. In other words, China will not only become a big industrial producer, but also gradually become a strong industrial producer.