Digging a deep hole to China.

• Author: Rundles, Jeff
• Position: Rundles Wrap-up

WHEN I DECIDED, YEARS AGO, TO BECOME A BUSINESS reporter, I thought I would be covering a mundane world of balance sheets, annual reports, 10ks, SEC rulings, and the occasional crook. Little did I know that covering business would, in and of itself, become a study of criminal behavior and an in-depth analysis of the weird.

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As it turns out, about the only thing more absurd I could have possibly entered into was sports reporting, and there are days when even that, compared with the business scene, seems pedestrian. If there is ever a steroid scandal involving MBAs, I'm keeping a close eye out for the Apocalypse.

But the other day it got weirder.

I get a lot of unsolicited public-relations material, and just recently I got a press release concerning a survey conducted by the international package shipper UPS that, well, struck me odd. What it said, in essence, was that the growing middle class of consumers in China--a group the survey called "Chuppies"--had a burning desire to buy everything American. Chief on the list of American products desired by these Chinese consumers? American consumer electronics, American toiletries, and apparel/fashion accessories--with a focus on "t-shirts with American logos."

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Now, I'm no expert, and I don't pretend to have any special insight into Gallup-like polling techniques. But I can read. What I read on the labels of my American stuff--my American electronics and, especially, my American apparel and fashion accessories, and my logo-embossed t-shirts--is "Made in China."

Am I missing something?

UPS, of course, wants to handle the shipping of our alleged American products back to China. As the research study pointed out, "U.S. exports to China have grown 80 percent since 2001 ... (and) the Chinese would like even more quality American items." And, of course, UPS has "18 weekly direct flights between the two nations."

But is this something to celebrate? I'm going to hazard a guess here: I'm thinking that of those 18 flights, the ones coming into America are a tad-bit more full than the ones going back to China. OK, some self-serving American company has done a survey that, on its face, should support and grow its own business model, and there's really nothing wrong with that. We Americans, however, have to dig deeper than the next business cycle.

As much as the 20th century was called the American Century--a time when the United States established its dominance as a...