CHINA INC.
Ted Fisherman’s China, Inc., emphasis on the world we deal with today. He concentrates on one of the country China which is rapidly emerging as a most powerful economy.The author has compiled an impressive array of facts, figures, and anecdotes about China's business economy. He has also made the book a lot more interesting with interviews with real life people, like shop sellers in a Shanghai knick-knack market to Patrick Lo, chief executive of networking equipment giant Netgear Inc.
But while Fishman's range of reporting is impressive, his book could have benefited from an overriding argument. Occasionally Fishman lets an opinion seep in, but only in the most cursory of terms. For instance, in his discussion of the Three Gorges Dam, the government's massive effort to block off a Lake Superior-sized reservoir along the Yangtze River, he laments briefly that the project will destroy much of the gorges and several cities, while displacing over a million people.
By avoiding more controversial TOPICS, Fishman reduces heated political debates to endless contemplating dialogues .In his discussion on piracy, Fishman says that China's vast counterfeit market constrains business innovators because they know any good idea will be ripped off. But he stops short of outright condemnation of piracy, explaining that the underground economy also provides an influx of much-needed cash to China. Then, moments later, he concedes that China's piracy robs the world of wealth.
This is not to claim that any of the complex issues raised by China, Inc. can be shoved into easy either-or paradigms. And Fishman does provide a good introduction to China's economy. But rather than sprawling so widely over such broad area, he might have focused on a few other parts and developed arguments about them. What should be done about China's rampant piracy? Should the yuan be pegged to the dollar?