Call me a conspiricy theorist but I think it's all part of 'the plan'.
From the article:
A series of strikes over the past two months have been a rude wakeup call for the many foreign companies that depend on China's low costs to compete overseas, from makers of Christmas trees to manufacturers of gadgets like the iPad.
A rude wakeup call for the'foreign companies' who's Ipads will cost more to manufacture but what about the 'Iplad' copy made around the corner, guess what ?, it's now even cheaper than the original, wow, gotta buy one of them.
The government, meanwhile, is pushing foreign companies to make investments in areas it believes will create greater wealth for China, like high technology.
Yep, teach us how to make & copy the REAL high tech stuff now. There's no more western can opener or christmas tree factories to send to the wall any more. Let's move on to everything else.
There's a chinese saying that goes along the lines of 'when we hang the capitalists it will be with the rope that they sold us'.
Don't worry about ARF jets, when the western government's 'level playing field' policies finally do level out & you too are earning third world country money the new thread will be 'who makes the best rubber band powered ARF.' - John.