The recent spy plane/hostage incident didn't deter business as usual in China, according to Key West businessman Wally Clark. Business, more than politics is South China's emphasis, he said.
"I was apprehensive when I arrived in China two days after the incident occurred there," said Clark, a shoe-importing agent who, for 18 years, has owned and operated W.J.C. & Company, LLC, from Key West. "I've been traveling to China for the past six years, and the factory workers and owners I do business with behaved as if nothing had happened."
Clark says while he was in China, he was able to watch both sides of the political stand-off: "Television is the Chinese laborer's big investment— they can't have cars because there is no road system to speak of— and without any government interruption, CNN concentrated on the visual of the Chinese airman flying into the US plane, while the Chinese stations kept showing the airspace they say the US had invaded," said Clark.
"The South Chinese people are free to discuss politics these days, and they were curious about why the US was `spying' on them when it has thousands of nuclear weapons compared to the few China has. They just couldn't understand that China would be a threat to the US," he said.
"But they did understand the political slant used by each government."
Although Clark says little concern about the incident was evident among the people working in the large factories he visited— "some have as many as 15,000 people working in them"— Taiwanese factory owners "certainly don't want to see any problems between China and the US."
Clark says thousands of Taiwanese live in South China and while "they don't want to live under its Communistic rule, it is still their hope to reunite with their homeland," he said. "The Taiwanese are probably the largest investors in South China, and political crises such as this one can mess up their investments."
Clark imports and carries the "Bellini" line of shoes, which he sells to US retailers. One or two times a month, he is the show host for his brand on the Home Shopping Network, and his media savvy serves capitalism well in this country.
But to do business in South China, Clark says he has had to learn the cultural ways of China's "old society", which is uniquely mixing capitalism and communism.
"In many ways, wages for instance, the factory workers are where US laborers were 60 years ago," said Clark. "Even though it is politically Communistic, South China is very capitalistic. Six years ago, workers couldn't buy their own homes, now you wouldn't believe the housing development that goes on.
"These people save every penny they make because oftentimes in big factories, room and board comes with the work, and they send their money home to their families, sometimes thousands of miles away," said Clark. "Their work ethic is remarkable. If a factory posts a need for 30 people, 100 people will stand in line to get the jobs, but if the factory won't guarantee 15 to 20 hours of overtime, people won't take them. They don't make high wages, but they do have options
"The primary work force is young, maybe 16 to 25 years old— by the way, I've never seen child laborers under 16— and they have so few material goods. But when five or six guys go out to dinner, they'll hold hands; so will the women," he said.
"There are so many people who are so poor, but apparently they have each other."