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NOVEMBER 2024 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 85 Yiwu is home to the world's largest small commodities market, selling everything from Christmas baubles and hair accessories to belts and toy bulldozers. Amongst other items, Yiwu annually produces over 3 billion pairs of socks for Wal-Mart, as well as things for Pringle and Disney. Just to give you an idea: Yiwu ships more than 1,000 TEU (these are 20-foot con- tainers) daily, requiring at least 500 trucks to carry these containers 1 . China's transport infrastructure is also of the highest standard. As of 2024, China's high- speed train network—with a total length of 45,000 km, which is two-thirds of the world's total high-speed railway network—is the world's longest and most extensively used. Starting in 2008, high-speed trains could attain a speed of 200–380 km/h (120-236 mph.) depending on the year of construction. China also has established a well-trained workforce. For example, Foxconn employs over 200,000 workers in their highly auto- mated 5.6 km 2 (2.16 m 2 ) big campus in Zheng- zhou (Henan province), where more than 50% of the world's iPhones are built. Approx- imately 100,000 are employed on their Shen- zhen campus. Geopolitical Issues Geopolitical issues can be more than merely restricting the investment of U.S. companies in China for fear of getting hit by sanctions. Planned investments in "favoured countries" have sometimes shied to other countries. For example, China-based Luxshare announced mid-2023 that a $365 million expansion ear- marked for India would be transferred to Viet- nam instead 3 . is is likely due to strained rela- tionships between India and China, with India almost refusing to grant business visas for Chi- nese nationals, even if they are needed to ser- vice and/or repair Chinese machines. Although India started to manufacture a large volume of Apple's iPhones, most people don't know that many of the components, etc., are still imported from China. In addition, Apple's attempt to diversify its supply chain by mov- ing production to India faced big challenges, Figure 1: Supply chain clusters in China. (Source: Li & Fung Research Centre)