In Toledo, the 'Glass City,' New Label: Made in China

[Liberal_in_LA]

In Toledo, the 'Glass City,' New Label: Made in China

By JAMES T. AREDDY

The Toledo Museum of Art's $30 million Glass Pavilion is a symbol of America's "Glass City," and reflects the legacy of its local glassmakers.

No one in the U.S. had the capability to satisfy cutting-edge architectural specifications for the curving pavilion, even though the 2006 job involved techniques advanced decades ago by Toledo inventors: bending and laminating glass. The pavilion features 360 thick glass panels, each up to 13.5 feet tall, eight feet wide and weighing over 1,300 pounds.

For years, the West focused on the threat from China's low-tech exporters like clothing and furniture makers. Glass represents how an even more potent challenge has arrived: sophisticated, capital-intensive businesses that boast high-tech expertise.

In industries where global demand has shifted to China, the pattern is repeated, from steel to locomotives and turbines to specialized glassworks. Chinese companies that have gorged on growth in the domestic market have managed in just a few years to close the gap on decades of technological innovation in the industrialized West.


Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703428604575418680197041878.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#ixzz0y7RytQ00

[BrklynLiberal]

1. How sad is that...

[Hannah Bell]

2. it's because foreign makers are actually making a lot of supposedly "chinese" goods.

e.g. most electronics exported from china are 100% foreign-owned.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. We need a fucking industrial policy in this damn country

[xchrom]

4. +1 - this was really a crying shame. Nt