This can be done. Now it is true that to find something that has nothing to do with China, you are out of luck. Even if it says "Made somewhere other than China" on the sticker, pieces of it could of came from there, or the machines that made it could of come from China, and so on.
This is why trade agreements tend to get free-er not more restrictive. Whether you know it or not, there is no such thing as a "emerging global economy," its already global. I once tracked the production process for the wheels on my car (Lexani Firestars). Actual assembly was in the US, but the metal was made in Thailand, mined in China, with engineering staff in Canada, and supportive staff (everything from shipping to administrative tasks) in Germany (the ship that carried the metal was german in origin), Switzerland (Lexani's financing), New York (its a country in its own right to me), and of all places the shipping labels, the paper for them, was milled in South Africa!
Or try tracking where a bag of lettuce comes from. The lettuce may be grown in the US even, but that packaging? Who wants to bet the plastic came somewhere else, the ink on it maybe even a whole other place?
Thats why new trade restrictions are so hard to create. It sounds easy to just say "stop imports from China," but then a legal battle ensues as to what what constitutes a chinese product. Something made there, or just stuff shipped from there? And also, how can we be completely cut off from China? The whole world gets stuff from China, and China gets stuff from the whole world. No one, not the Chinese not America not Europe, even properly knows where everything comes from anymore. You pretty much have to track down a product just by itself, but its entirely possible that even products that are the same were made in different places. Those Lexani wheels? Whats to say that although mine were put together here, other wheels in the same style were not put together in China? I could of opened the box and half the wheels were from America, the other half from China!
There is this rosy picture that anyone country actually stands for something anymore, that there are absolutes and that what you make is who you are. I'm sorry to tell you that we have been in Post-Modernism for decades now. The only thing you can be absolutely certain of is that things change. A country may make bombs and preach peace, a peacemaker now owns bombs. What you make does not have to be about you: I know carpenters who love electronics, electronics salesman who dream of a naturalist lifestyle, and CEOs who despise money and affluence (those two guys are particularly charitable, I eat out with them whenever I can because they always pick up the bill!).
And China is much different from what it was even 30 years ago. Its no longer a nation of Mao-suit wearing communists. Today the Chinese people shop at Wal-Mart, wear the latest European fashions in addition to wearing oodles of Denim, and listen to Rap and R&B. Its true there is a particular "China Style" of Hip Hop (mainly hip hop lyrics on top of chinese opera music), but every country has a slightly differing hip hop scene (with the exception being Europe, there they all listen to pop hip hop and nothing else, ick).
The only thing still like the China of thirty years ago at all is the government, but even it has a lot of differences in it. IF the Chinese government tried another cultural revolution, they'd be stoned to death. The leaders were Armani suits and Prada shoes. They drive Buicks and Cadillacs. There is even a slow building movement toward democracy.
And they have American problems, just 50 times worse. Pollution, overcrowding, too many cars (and they dont have many yet!), and overwhelmed social services are the norm there. Just like here. Try getting universal health care in China! Just like America, that'd be tough to pull off.
Tell your boss that it sucks Chinese guns shot at him 30 years ago. But the Chinese eat up American made cars, clothing styles, music, art, and even our way of life. Tell him that they have forgiven America for anything it did way back when, and that in Vietnam today, American is as good of title as any (we have both free trade agreements and diplomatic relations now).
Its a different world. And its easier to accept a good world than change it to a bad one.
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