How Did Wen Jiabao Become the “Best Friend of the American Worker?”

On March 2, the International Longshoreman’s Association — North America’s largest maritime union, representing the interests of more than 65,000 dockworkers in Canada, the U.S. and other nations — presented Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao with the “Best Friend of American Worker” award, the award given to “thank China for its great contributions to creating more job opportunities for American workers.”

Actually, this is not the first time Wen Jiabao has received an honor of this sort. In 2003, while on a state trip to the U.S., he stopped by the Boston Harbor to visit American workers and was given a similar distinction. The pertinent question is: why do America’s dockworkers consider Wen Jiabao a good friend, much less their “best friend?”

The answer lies with the China Ocean Shipping Company. In 2000, just as the global shipping market bottomed out and was followed shortly after by the events of Sept. 11, several shipping companies’ businesses shrank, one by one removing their routes to Boston. Boston Harbor subsequently fell into a crisis, and it seemed highly likely that workers would face widespread unemployment.

Consequently, high-level officials from the Massachusetts state government wrote to China Ocean Shipping Company asking for aid, hoping that the central Chinese enterprise would be able to lend a hand to its struggling Bostonian “blue-collar brethren.”

In March 2002, China Ocean Shipping Company accepted the invitation to officially open a shipping line, bringing profit to Boston Harbor and the rest of Massachusetts, as well as securing the jobs of the port’s more than 9,000 dockworkers and making headlines throughout the U.S. Unsurprisingly, the Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development presented China Ocean Shipping Company with its “Economic Booster Award” in 2004.

The International Longshoreman’s Association, headquartered in Boston, is even more grateful to China Ocean Shipping Company. In 2007, it conferred its “Job Creation Award” on China Ocean Shipping Company to say thanks for providing our long-term livelihoods. In 2011, it again awarded China Ocean Shipping Company with the “Guardian of American Workers Award” to say thank you to China Ocean Shipping Company for taking good care of them.

The awards given to China Ocean Shipping Company do not stop at Massachusetts. In 2001, the governor of Maryland personally proclaimed June 2 “China Ocean Shipping Company day,” and the mayor of Baltimore made China Ocean Shipping Company ‘s CEO Wei Jiafu an “honorary resident.” Additionally, other state governments invited China Ocean Shipping Company to develop business in their states, waiting anxiously by their phones for a reply.

Why is China Ocean Shipping Company so welcomed in America and around the world? What is so special about it? The first and most important point is: It is different from Chinese manufacturing enterprises which are iPad or CPU subcontractors and must “steal American worker’s jobs.” China Ocean Shipping Company’s business is ocean shipping, and regardless of whether the goods that it ships are imported from the U.S. to China or from China to the U.S., they all create jobs for U.S. dockworkers.

For example, China Ocean Shipping Company has only sent three senior-level managers to America’s Long Beach docks, the other managers are all local residents. When China Ocean Shipping Company opened a direct shipping route to the Port of Long Beach, Calif., more than 10,000 handling and transport workers received an influx of work in addition to benefiting the development of other port-related industries.

Moreover, China Ocean Shipping Company directly employs foreign staff, while the proportion of foreign staff within the entire company fluctuates around 6 percent. At the end of 2005, China Ocean Shipping Company already owned more 30 companies of various types in the U.S. and employed 1,000 Americans, while 92 percent of China Ocean Shipping Company’s employees at its American businesses were employed locally.

Second, China Ocean Shipping Company is recognized as “not only bringing Chinese goods, but also bringing Chinese speed” to local areas. For example, after China Ocean Shipping Company training, Greek workers’ loading and unloading speed first increased from six to 13 containers per hour per team, gradually increasing to 16, 18 and 22 containers — surpassing the average standard for loading and unloading in Europe. Their highest rate even reached 39 containers per hour per team, breaking the loading and unloading record for the Mediterranean region.

Another point worth mentioning is that the Chinese government’s “economic diplomacy” has created no small amount of benefits for the well-connected China Ocean Shipping Company. For example, on Wen Jiabao’s state visits, he often makes time to inspect China Ocean Shipping Company ports in that country. On his 2003 trip to the United States, he facilitated a meeting between the two countries’ heads of transportation. Through these negotiations, China Ocean Shipping Company was exempt from status as a “controlled carrier.” America uses this label to penalize state enterprises under planned economies, thus lowering the period after which it could make price adjustments for tariffs from 30 days to 24 hours.

Of course, China Ocean Shipping Company’s miraculous past is not without its share of pain. Its core business of distributing goods is the low-end market of global ocean freight, and it has an inadequate market share in liquefied natural gas and other high-end market fields. Furthermore, its earnings reports are not pretty, as China Ocean Shipping Company and the China Shipping Group with similar overseas business were the first and second-largest losers respectively among companies traded on Chinese stock exchanges during the financial crisis.

What’s funny is that in the 1990s, China Ocean Shipping Company was regarded by Americans as “a branch of the People’s Liberation Army,” and was subjected to all sorts of suspicion. However, under the greater climate of globalization and the smaller atmosphere of the economic crisis, China Ocean Shipping Company slowly became seen as a god of wealth bringing jobs. These jobs pay real money, and it is irrelevant to quibble over where the money comes from. As to thanking this god of wealth with a “Job Creation Award” and a “Guardian of American Workers Award” among others, it doesn’t cost anything to be nice, so why not?