I recently accompanied the CEO and other senior staff from Hazelett Strip Casting of Colchester to Tongling, Anhui Province in China. We were there to celebrate the opening of a copper rod manufacturing plant that featured a Hazelett machine as the centerpiece of their operation. Equipment manufactured in Colchester is the world standard for quality casting. Sometimes as we salivate over the ‘new’ economy we forget that we have legacy anchors that keep on producing jobs, profits and goods for the world market.

Clearly there is a world of difference between what one experiences in the Untied States as compared to China. The food, people, culture and architecture is very different. Those things are to be expected and don’t come as much of a surprise.

A few things did stand out and caused me to wonder whether or not, in China’s drive to become a world manufacturing power and leader, they are making the same mistakes that we did four decades or so.

One cannot help but notice the proliferation of high rise apartment buildings that pepper the landscape. China’s policy to turn farm land into industrial development zones has led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands if not millions of people. Their skyline now is not dissimilar from that of New York, or Newark, or Chicago. Following our experiment with public housing, we learned that a dense pack of humanity that removes a sense of individualism and identity leads to difficult social problems.

Another unexpected revelation dealt with transportation. Folks who traveled to China fifteen or twenty years ago recall streets crowded with bicycles with very few motorized vehicles. Today, bikes have been replaced by motorized scooters; motorcycles, small cars; bigger Buicks and even SUV’s. Traffic control devices are clearly more advisory than mandatory as residents drive wherever and however they choose, much like one would on a bike. The consequences now are blaring horns, incredible traffic jams and erratic behaviors. I witnessed more crashes in one week in China than I would in a year in Vermont or even in a major U. S city. On the other hand, I can’t remember hitting one pothole. Their infrastructure is magnificent.

This post is not meant to disparage China or their move from socialism to an interesting form of capitalism. In fact, I applaud their slow but inexorable migration. However, some of the best lessons that can be learned are about how to avoid doing something incorrectly. We have a lot to teach about tearing up productive farm land, forcing people to live on top of each other and the rush to transportation models that guzzle gas while polluting the air.

Your Thoughts?