The Big Smoke

Made in China: Paddington Bear

A benign invasion is sweeping London. This autumn we’ve already welcomed China’s Terracotta Army to the British Museum, but in the streets of the capital itself, the world’s fastest growing economy is infiltrating every aspect of our lives. Want a new computer? A good pair of jeans? Some high-class Christmas decorations? Chances are that if you go to the high street the first object you’ll lay your hand on is Chinese. The country’s lower cost of labour is proving addictive for our major traders. Just sneak a glance at the labels inside your clothes right now. When we did a spot check at Time Out, nearly 50 per cent of us would have been half naked without China’s help.

It’s something of a surprise, then, when we talk to the Economist Intelligence Unit and discover Chinese goods accounted for only 4.75 per cent (£15,303 million) of the UK’s total imports in 2006 (up from 2.25 per cent of imports in 2000). And press offices from the major shops are all – perhaps understandably – coy about revealing the sources of their stock. So we hit the West End to conduct our own survey about how much of London is made in China. The Time Out test is to make a random selection of objects in each shop and note down what percentage of that selection has come from the emerging superpower. Feature continues

Toys and decorations
Upon entering Hamleys, I am bombarded by fast-moving pockets of air and a hail of detergent bubbles. A grinning assistant informs me that I have just experienced the combined forces of the ‘Bubble-ator’ and ‘Megazooka’ (the latter shoots pockets of compressed air up to 20 metres). Undeterred, despite the detergent factor, I press deeper into the store. In April, there were reports the company was turning to British toymakers following scares that had forced it to withdraw several Chinese toys from sale, but I do not have to look hard to find products that are far from home-made. Two toys selected at random from the first fluorescent bank to hand (a furry neon-pink flamingo and a duckling improbably attired in a shiny green raincoat) sport identical ‘Made in China’ labels.

Moving on to the Paddington Bear section, it transpires that he does not hail from darkest Peru as we have been led to believe but is rather more Oriental in origin. In fact, of all the toys I select on five floors, more than 90 per cent are made in China. When I call Hamleys later, to ask why, the response is: ‘We’re looking into sourcing more products from the UK while trying not to feed the hysteria about China-sourced products. Many items produced in China are of a high quality and the Chinese government is becoming more rigorous in enforcing codes of practice.’ Which is just as well, because by the time I reach the ‘fun learning’ section I’m more surprised by the fact that children can now have ‘interactive learning experiences’ with a multi-coloured lawnmower than I am to see that the entire stock is Chinese. On my way out, I check who’s responsible for producing the ‘Bubble-ator’ and ‘Megazooka’, and you guessed it…

Time Out test at other stores
Mamas and Papas: Toys and baby clothes – 90 per cent.
Selfridges: Christmas decorations – 70 per cent.
Paperchase: Christmas decorations – 100 per cent.

Made in China: Uniqlo shirt

Men’s clothes
Uniqlo’s new tagline is ‘quality Japanese denim for affordable prices’, and a quick trawl through the store explains how such affordability can be achieved. Every single item I look at, denim or otherwise, is produced by Japan’s hungry and prolific neighbour. Continuing the denim trail down Oxford Street, I pop into Levi’s and Next, to find that Chinese clothes account for 30 and 50 per cent respectively of the stock I check.

Gap seems to buck the trend, with Turkey being this season’s China, accounting for a whopping 40 per cent of clothes sampled (China has ‘only’ 20 per cent). And finally, what could be more British than Burberry? China delivers the goods yet again, with three of the five items tested hailing from the middle kingdom.

Time Out test at other stores
Urban Outfitters: 60 per cent.

Women’s clothes
Accessorize always represents an Aladdin’s cave of delights for the female shopper, yet – as is starting to prove a defining pattern for our survey – much of its stock hails from further east than the boy and his genie. Eighty per cent of items that I check there began life in China, including a silver chain bracelet with black glass discs hanging from it, a stylish, studded black belt with a jewelled buckle, mustard-yellow leather gloves and an array of attractive handbags. Since the security guard keeps eyeing me suspiciously as I take my notes, my strategy in the next few shops is to trundle cheerfully into the changing rooms carrying the maximum number of clothes allowed so I can make my notes in secret. Despite the range of styles and sizes I select – really, did anyone think I was seriously interested in that baggy silver and grey jumper? – I attract no attention and am able to discover through this method that 60 per cent of Warehouse items randomly selected are Chinese, as are half of those in Miss Selfridge – including a fetchingly Maoist red frilly blouse. The tally is less impressive in H&M (a mere 30 per cent), and in Topshop the global reach is astounding; Macau, Mauritius, and Romania are all represented, making the tally of Chinese clothes that come to hand a miserable 10 per cent. But overall, the red dragon seems safely dominant in female clothing.

Time Out test at other stores
Mexx: 70 per cent.
Zara: 30 per cent.

Made in China: souvenirs

Souvenirs
Surely that elusive ‘Made in the UK’ label will rally in our souvenir shops, in this case Surprise Surprise on Oxford Street. And sure enough it does – but so do several other labels. China crops up in some very interesting ways. Two of the more ‘colourful’ items on offer are some Chinese-produced Union Jack handcuffs and a genuinely horrific ‘willy mug’. At least the group of Chinese tourists who file in as Time Out departs can rest assured that their purchases will serve as small acts of patriotism, feeding the motherland through shopping sprees in exotic England.

Department stores
The rule with department stores seems to be the larger the product, the fewer the air miles. In Selfridges we find mattresses from Norway, coffee-tables from Sweden and a croquet set that proudly proclaims ‘Made in UK’. Look for anything more transportable, and the trend is eastwards, with China coming first in the clothing market. John Lewis offers Jaeger suits, Fred Perry T-shirts and handmade silk ties as well as Jamie Oliver cookware of Chinese origin. The eastern production line supplies Selfridges with items that range from Dolce & Gabbana scarves through to a knitted Diesel monstrosity (possibly a cardigan).

Getting electric
The companies supplying electronics shops on Tottenham Court Road hail from Taiwan, Japan, the USA, and Korea. But not one of them does the nitty-gritty on their own doorstep. The Chinese are at least as dominant in assembling electronics as they are in toymaking. In MBA Electronics, a random sample of ten products – ranging from laptops to TVs – turned up nine made in China, and one (a Samsung LCD TV) hailing from Slovakia. Up the road in Hi Fi Sounds, every amp and speaker we checked was made in China – along with the wall-mounting brackets.

Finance
In terms of Chinese investment, the UK is the most favoured nation in Europe, and London benefits the most, receiving 15 per cent of China’s total European investments. Telecoms and energy are leading the way: according to international business development agency Think London, significant Chinese companies coming to operate in the capital in the past two years include China Telecom, ZTE (China’s leading telecoms equipment manufacturer), PetroChina and China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC). There’s also Midea, which started out humbly making bottle lids but has transformed itself into a leading electronic goods manufacturer, apparently most famous for its air-conditioning.

Made in China: department store goods

Education
According to HESA, university administrators should be brushing up on their Mandarin. Since 2003, more students have come to London from China than from any other country. Over the course of 2001-02, the number of Chinese students (2,810) was lower than those attending from Germany, the USA and Greece, but it rose to 6,325 in 2003, and remains at the top of the league, with 7,375 at the last count (2005-06).

Tourism
The residents of Beijing can be rather obsessed with our capital city. Fabregas or Cole, Princess Diana or Charles and Camilla, the strength of the pound or the thick smog that covers London – these are likely to be the first topics of any conversation with a local cabby in Beijing. The globalisation of football means Chelsea and Arsenal players are regularly on the back pages of China Daily and the people of Beijing still compare the royal family of Britain with the imperial family of China, which collapsed a century ago. But with decades-out-of-date textbooks on the industrial revolution and with one of China’s most popular men’s fashion brand names London Fog, the myth that Londoners live in a Dickensian city with smog hiding the Oliver Twist types is perpetuated. Ironic, given that Beijing is now the most polluted capital in the world.

Yet while the older generation still think that London is populated with conservative, serious businessmen in black suits and bowler hats, China’s new generation of young, educated and increasingly wealthy middle classes regard London as a cultural mecca, and a destination to experience the finest architecture, art, film and music.

Neebing, DJ, promoter and bar owner, has travelled several times to London. ‘It’s a really trendy city. It has everything: art, fashion, music… and the media is also very influential, especially among young creative circles. But for clubs and dance music, London really is the centre of the whole world for that,’ he says. ‘Whenever I go to London I do the music things, see concerts, check out what is going on in the club scene and maybe check out a couple of musicals in the West End.’

Yang Yaoxin, a 25-year-old graphic designer from Beijing who has never left China, agrees: ‘London is the home of punk. It really is a cultural centre, so if I went to London, of course I would want to see live music. The London music scene is the best in the world. This year has seen a huge influx of contemporary British bands such as Maximo Park, the Go! Team and Faithless perform in China, which has confirmed to many young Chinese music lovers that Britain does lead the way in music.’

‘I know a few people from London and they are more similar to Beijing people than you think,’ continues Yang. ‘Both Beijing and London are cultural centres; London has the royal family and we have had the emperors, and both Londoners and Beijingers have a similar sense of dark humour.’

Although Chinese tourists so far only make up a small percentage of Britain’s 30 million-plus tourists a year, the Approved Destination Status agreement signed between China and Britain in 2005 has made it easier for Chinese tourists to enter the country, but as Britain is not a part of the Schengen Agreement (a system allowing relaxed border controls), the UK currently only sees an eighth of the number of Chinese tourists that travel to France. However, since there are an estimated 250 million Chinese middle-class people who can afford to travel overseas, the potential for tourism to take off in London is certainly there.

Toys, clothes and decorations from China

Portion of PRC's EU investment in London

Revenue for London from Chinese tourism

Threats to Chinese influence
Ironically, the place in London where you’d most expect to find all things Chinese is fighting to retain its Chinese identity. For the past five years, Chinatown has been the centre of a fierce battle between the area’s Chinese traders and property developer Rosewheel Ltd. In 2003, Rosewheel – owned by property magnate Robert Bourne – bought the Newport Sandringham building, at the centre of Chinatown, planning to renovate the interior. But it soon became clear that Rosewheel had ambitious redevelopment ideas, which involved evicting many of the Asian-owned businesses. After a long fight to stay, 17 local business were finally evicted from the building in 2005. Most simply went out of business.

Although planning permission has now been granted to Rosewheel, work on the site has been stalled by wrangling over compensation payments to the uprooted businesses. As for the new development, Bourne has always insisted that the proposals are ‘110 per cent Chinese-focused’, but many fear that the ‘new’ Chinatown will be a Disneyfied version of its former self.

Chinatown is not the only community under threat. Traders in Oriental City, a shopping centre in Colindale that offers everything from fresh mangosteen to acupuncture sessions, have been fighting for the future of their centre, which is to be rebuilt as a £200m development featuring a DIY superstore and other chains. Although Development Securities, the company behind the plans, promised the businesses would be able to return to the site, tenants estimate at least two-thirds of the 800 skilled jobs at the centre will be lost as customers drift away in the three years needed for rebuilding. However, the fate of Oriental City ends on a happier note than that of Chinatown: the traders have negotiated a deal whereby they can remain on the site, rent-free, until May 2008, when the building begins; they have all been offered the opportunity to return after the new centre is completed, and in the meantime, they have been offered a £3m relocation package.