STEPHANIE HOO talks to the author of a new book who tried to go an entire year without buying anything from China. An asap podcast.
The new book "A Year Without 'Made in China'" details business journalist Sara Bongiorni's efforts not to buy any products made in that booming country for 12 months -- from sneakers to mousetraps, toy swords to cargo pants.
The idea came to her one Christmas, when she realized with growing unease that most of her family's gifts that year were, you guessed it, made in China.
Boycotting China may appeal to some in the light of the decline in U.S. manufacturing and, more recently, a spate of food safety scares from China.
Why pick on China, as it were? Is it better or worse to buy something made by a Chinese company in, say, Mexico or Cambodia -- or, to buy something made by an American company in China, when the profits return here? The question gets to the very definition of globalization, in which trading partners are becoming more interconnected.
With this in mind, asap spoke with Bongiorni by phone about her yearlong experience -- about what surprised her and what she learned -- in this asap podcast.
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Stephanie Hoo is asap's business writer and a former AP correspondent in China.
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