Dangers lurk in global value chain

THE EDITOR'S PAGE

So you still think it doesn't matter whether manufacturing is done in the U.S. or is outsourced to another country? Perhaps you're not convinced that our increased dependence on other countries for production means that foreign policy is important to you, the leaders of the

U.S.' largest manufacturing companies? You should know that other manufacturing executives are getting a bit worried about the confluence of these two issues, specifically about the increasing importance of China to our nation's information-technology industry. The two come together in a way that reveals the risks of global value-chain management.

On May 29 The New York Times described the executives' concerns, with none other than the influential Andrew S. Grove, chairman of Intel Corp., weighing in. The report details the migration of Taiwan's personal-computer and information-technology manufacturing industries to China, which places the U.S. in "an odd position: Its main supplier of PCs and other information technology, or IT, gear, will be its main strategic adversary."