Death By China
Death By China
NR | 17 August 2012 (USA)
Death By China Trailers

In 2001, China joined the World Trade Organization with the strong support of a Democratic President and Republican Congress. Before the ink was dry on this free trade agreement, China began flooding U.S. markets with illegally subsidized exports while the big multinational companies that had lobbied heavily for the agreement rapidly accelerated the off shoring of American jobs to China. Today, as a result of the biggest shell game in American history, China has stolen millions of our jobs, corporate profits are soaring, and we now owe over $3 trillion to the world's largest totalitarian nation. This film is about how that happened... and why the best jobs program for America is trade reform with China.

Reviews
NekoHomey

Purely Joyful Movie!

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Brightlyme

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

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Crwthod

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

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Hayden Kane

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

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dekakashi

Most of the film were off topic. They threw in anything that is negative about China but they are not related to trade and economy. It feels like the producers has nothing else to back up their claims and just threw in human rights issue and freedom of speech.Manufacture jobs went away not because of China. They went away because the US companies found more cost efficient alternatives. If not China, it could have been Vietnam, Bangladesh, or other third world countries.China has some really bad trade practices and that's why I hated Chinese companies and their government. BUT that is NOT the reason why you can't find a job in 2012 or why we don't make printers and fridge no more.The fact that our income disparity is so great, it's basically inviting cheap products. How else are you suppose to satisfy the majority of low income earners in the US?

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rejj2369

This documentary is so one-sided that it is unbelievable. The discovery of toxic lead-covered toys and defective products did happen and they were called back. I am sure many American products were guilty of similar public outrage at some point or another, such as contaminated eggs, milk, and poorly designed cars that resulted in deaths to name a few. It is also hard to see China as the sole perpetrator when American multinational corporations were also accused of pouring money into the Chinese government to persuade them to turn a blind eye on factory and environmental regulations. I believe that corrupt Chinese officials and the American multinational corporations are equally responsible. Wealthy men in power are playing number games at our expense. It's all about power.

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my_perfect_mistake

I just watched this documentary last night on Netflix. I just turned 44 last month, so I feel I can safely say I have been "around the block" at least once in this lifetime, so far. I also stay abreast of current events, and am moderately conservative, literally and figuratively. A few observations I have made in my lifetime so far: my grandfather on my mothers side was a painter. He raised 6 kids and supported a stay at home mom on a painters wages. They lived a modest lifestyle and nobody wanted for anything. My fathers parents both worked for Hershey foods. She was a secretary, he was a warehouse worker. They put both children through college. They lived an upper-middle class lifestyle. In other words, my grandparents and their families all "lived the American dream" (without college educations), and did it with little to no drama. Just another day in America. Fast forward to 2014. The US is a mess, in wars all over the world, record unemployment, supposedly clawing our way out of a recession, I live paycheck to paycheck with mounting debt... Why? What happened? What has changed?This movie may give some insight. As already mentioned in other reviews, it doesn't offer the solution. Duh... if somebody had a solution we would have good paying jobs, a manufacturing base, low unemployment, less people on welfare, children that weren't raised by "devices" rather than parents, etc. etc. There was a shift in the dynamic of the corporations catering to the share holders rather than the employees, which is explained in the documentary. The greed of the boards of directors and the share holders is what drove the jobs overseas to take advantage of cheap labor. That is an absolute no-brainer.Something else that is explained is once foreign labor is trained to do a particular task, instead of importing those widgets for their own consumption, they will just manufacture it themselves, essentially making US based R&D moot. How many products have you seen in the last few years that say "Designed in USA" followed by "Made in China"? Off the top of my head I can think of one huge multi-national company in particular that uses fruit as a corporate logo. China may not copy those products on a large scale... yet... but how many smaller companies that may not be able to afford hundreds or thousands of hours of litigation will just throw their hands in the air and say "I give up!" I have a protective case for aforementioned fruit-based companies product I bought on the big auction site. It shipped new from China, even though the manufacturer is a well known US company. It's a copy, because China doesn't play fair.I haven't even touched on the fact China is raking in US dollars and building an army that could theoretically be five times the size of the US military. Scary stuff.I could go on and on with this, but I would rather just suggest taking some time and viewing this documentary. Form your own opinion. If it upsets or angers you, take action! Call your representatives in DC. Vote - at the ballot box and with your wallet. Seek out American made products, they are out there! There is a 2 part review on here that gave a "no stars" review and a 1 star review. Please pay attention to that users name. It does appear there are some pro-China sympathizers/nationalists posting negative reviews about this documentary. Be mindful of that fact.

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MartinHafer

I am glad that a film like "Death By China" was made, although I sometimes disagree with the film in how they present the problems with the HUGE Chinese trade imbalance. While I think it's a huge problem that practically no one is talking about in the West, the film only makes a partially convincing argument. But at least it acknowledges that there is a problem.This documentary is narrated by Martin Sheen and is apparently based on a book by the same name. It contends that since China was admitted to the World Trade Organization, unintended negative consequences have occurred. US industries have either gone out of business or relocated abroad, technology has been stolen and China's civil rights abuses continue--all while they fund a massive military buildup. All this is undeniably true and the country has used some unfair tactics to keep this imbalance going (such as government subsidies to industries which, in turn, force their rivals out of business as well as manipulation of the Yuan). And, interestingly, reviews that hated this film completely ignored all of this--particularly the human rights violations. All of this should concern us and is fair game for the film.On the other hand, sometimes a bit of the film seemed like hyperbole (such as complaints about baby cribs being recalled--recalls of baby products have been occurring very regularly long before Chinese cribs came to America; the same can be said about the false Alar scare). Also the film is quick to spot problems but offers little in the way of solutions--though they are quite right that we in the West are to blame since we are living well beyond our means. Finally, I wonder who bankrolled this film--as it seemed to have an agenda (particularly in its choice of some of the interviewees). Although China is predatory in its practices and is not a particularly nice nation in which to practice free speech, the problem is not this simple and is actually very complex. Americans choose these products, government officials do nothing to reverse unfair trade practices, unions push more for higher wages and are at the same time unwilling to make concessions and corporations are greedy and only care about profits. So, in effect, it's everyone's fault--something this film didn't quite seem willing to say. A very sobering and interesting film but one that seemed a bit disingenuous in addressing the total picture. Still worth seeing, however.

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