Still in second gear

摘要

Three hours' drive from Beijing, Tianjin is home to the new assembly plant of Great Wall Motors. A banner along its outside wall declares the company's motto: "Improving little by little every day". Inside, signs everywhere urge workers to be inspired by the "Toyota Production System spirit". Machines seem to outnumber people: labour is no longer cheap in coastal China. Banks of beefy robot welders, constrained in wire cages as if to stop them escaping, chug away relentlessly, making the human welders alongside look puny.