Made In China: Your Job

Sept. 21, 2005— -- China's economy continues to skyrocket and, with it, American fortunes have been won and lost. "Good Morning America's" Bill Weir recently traveled to China and returned with a four-part series: "Made in China: Your Job, Your Future, Your Fortune."

In the second installment, Weir examines China's surging economy and what gains in Chinese business mean for American jobs.

The Nike plant in the Guangdong province is by no means a sweatshop. Overtime is limited to a 48-hour workweek, the company brings in a ton of rice a day to feed everyone, and the facilities even include a golf course.

But it is hardly a country club by American standards. While the plant provides housing, it is in massive, sweltering dormitories that sleep eight to a room. And wages are low -- just $31 a week -- less than 15 times less the wage paid at an American factory.

Because labor is so cheap, Nike can produce an affordable sneaker for American consumers, but American industries worry that the workers may not tolerate these conditions for long.

"The conditions and surroundings are pretty good," said Chen Zihong, a worker at the Nike factory. "If nothing urgent comes up, I'll probably work here awhile."

Chen, a 22-year-old from the countryside, was promoted off the assembly line after just a year, and her co-workers are on the lookout for better jobs as well. They are some of the 1.3 billion members of an increasingly upward mobile society. Questions abound as to whether the next generation will be willing to make shoes when they can be building and designing cars, airplanes and satellites.

At the Genomics Lab in Beijing, technicians sleep at their desks under slogans that read, "Occupy the hilltop first, clean up the war zone later."

"We use 24 hours, seven days, compared to other people's five days, eight hours, and that's how we can squeeze more out and getting a cost advantage here in China," said Darren Cai of Genomics.

When SARS hit Asia, this lab was able to isolate the genetic makeup of the virus in a day and a half, one of just many reasons why more American companies are tapping into this vast, motivated and increasingly brilliant talent pool.