Walk into any Wal-Mart and you won’t be surprised to see the shelves sagging
with Chinese-made goods—everything from shoes and garments to toys and
electronics. But the ubiquitous “Made in China” label obscures an important
point: Few of these products are made by indigenous Chinese companies. In
fact, you would be hard-pressed to find a single homegrown Chinese firm that
operates on a global scale and markets its own products abroad.
That is because China’s export-led manufacturing boom is larg
