英语阅读：A smile that shows the face of China
A British customer bought an iPhone set, in which he found a few photos ofa woman worker on the assembly line of what obviously was the plant producing
the mobile phones.
Instead of feeling angry at the manufacturer's mistake, the customer posted
the photographs on the Internet. There was soon an online search for the girl.
It turned out that the photos were shot as a test of Apple's new 3G handset in a
plant in Shenzhen but the tester apparently forgot to delete the pictures from
the phone's memory.
The image of the smiling Chinese girl soon became popular with netizens in
what the world media called an "iPhone-girl frenzy". The girl's radiant smile
plus her status as a worker was undoubtedly the main reason accounting for the
worldwide attention. The round-faced girl grinning with white, neat teeth may
not be the prettiest type of Chinese women but is definitely lovely and
healthily good-looking.
Commodities made in China can be found in almost every corner of the world
but it was probably the first time ever that consumers at the other side of the
globe have seen a Chinese worker who hand-assembled their home appliances. That
gave them a real sense, and a happy reminder, of globalization.
In recent years, the omnipresent "Made in China" has been criticized in
some parts of the world as a synonym for job opportunity robber, child labor
abuser and environment polluter and a symbol of the "China threat". It is
actually a false story circulated to stay further and further away from the
truth.
This columnist does not intend to discuss all the accusations made against
China's exported products but wants to say a few words on the relationship
between Chinese and the world economies.
Since it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, China has become the
world's fourth largest economy and the third biggest importer/exporter. In its
World Economic Outlook and Global Financial Stability Report published last
year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pointed out that the Chinese economy
accounted for only 4 percent of the world economy but contributed nearly
one-third to the global economic growth. Of this contribution, consumer goods
made up the bulk part.
Inexpensive Chinese goods have greatly benefited consumers throughout the
world, especially those in the United States, Europe and Japan, the largest
importers of "Made in China". American economist Gary Clyde Hufbauer once made a
calculation on how much money Chinese goods had saved for American families. He
found that each household saved more than $500 in 2003 through buying Chinese
products. It amounted to the benefit President George W. Bush planned to bring
to American families through a tax reduction program.
This is a proof of the positive role of globalization, in which China
played an import part. Are cheap Chinese goods not a boon but rather a drawback
for common people in the world?
While contributing to the stability and growth of the global economy,
Chinese people improved their livelihood standards. They know they have
benefited from the process of economic globalization. But they also hope to see
economic advancement in other countries, because they know that no nation in the
world, China included, can fare well without common prosperity of the global
economy. That is why they believe in "One World, One Dream", as was best
illustrated in the recently held 29th Olympic Games in Beijing.
The smiling "iPhone Girl" probably best represents the present mindset of
the Chinese people - confident, full of hope for the future and friendly to the
rest of the world.
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