Cheap Genetic Testing

"Chinese genetic testers offer almost unbelievably low prices.

Chengdu-based 23Mofang was one of the first direct-to-consumer
genetic testing startups in China, founded in 2015 after the founder,
Zhōu Kūn 周坤, was inspired by America’s 23andMe and supported by
cash infusions from six rounds of fundraising totaling 160 million yuan ($24.5 million).

By 2017, 23Mofang had brought the price of DNA testing down to
499 yuan ($76), one-fourth of the cost from other providers when
the service debuted in the Chinese market in 2013.

Genebox entered the market in 2018 and took the starting price
even lower, to 19.9 yuan ($3). Lǐ Zhì 李智, Genebox’s founder and
CEO, said the company attempts to attract users to send their DNA
samples through the low basic package price, and they can pay
additional fees to unlock other data and analysis.

To localize the genetic testing procedure and further lower costs,
Genebox earlier this year announced (in Chinese) it had made
China’s first independently developed microarray, a biochip that
measures the expression levels of a large number of genes at the
same time, breaking into the upstream technology market currently
dominated by America’s Illumina.

Privacy concerns are rising as direct-to-consumer genetic testing
companies gain more popularity in China."

@duchess64 said
Chinese genetic testers offer almost unbelievably low prices.

Isn't everything cheaper in China? That's why companies make products there before shipping them elsewhere.

@vivify said
Isn't everything cheaper in China? That's why companies make products there before shipping them elsewhere.

Vivify clings to his extremely ignorant stereotypes.

Garment manufacturers know well that the cheapest labor is found in Bangladesh.

https://medium.com/@techpacker/top-4-asian-countries-for-garment-manufacturing-b716c950cc8

"Top Four Asian Countries for Garment Manufacturing"

"China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and India are four of the largest garment exporters in the world."

"China’s increasing wages will force more garment importers to move production
to less developed countries with lower costs."

In fact, this has been already happening.

"China’s gradual move away from labor-intensive garment manufacturing is typical of
industrialized countries as wages and standards of living rise and population growth slows.
China’s government not only acknowledges its inevitable shift in manufacturing
but is actively promoting it."

"Labor costs: The advantage of Bangladesh
It’s no secret that the garment business, or “rag trade” as it’s sometimes called,
typically chases the next cheapest pair of hands. For this reason, the last decade
has seen an increase in garment production in countries like India, Vietnam and
Pakistan, as well as Cambodia and Bangladesh. The latter provides the lowest
wages out of the major garment producing countries,"

"Rising labor costs in China
Indeed, importers’ preferences e for lower wages is eroding China’s competitiveness
putting China’s East Coast provinces — the traditional heartland of Chinese
garment production — out of the market for many high-volume, basic clothes."

"India’s significantly lower labor costs [than China's ] has not always sufficed for
manufacturers to consider relocating."

"One reason for this is the productivity of workers ... the above measurement
shows India’s productivity is also estimated to be less than half of China’s."

"By this measurement, Vietnam’s human capital eclipses China’s, while India lags behind, even Bangladesh."

'Eclipses' is a misleading exaggeration. The chart puts Vietnam at 68.39, *slightly*
ahead of China at 67.81, with a much bigger gap to Bangladesh at 57.84, barely
ahead of India at 57.73.

"Numbers indicate that China has better infrastructure development than Bangladesh, Vietnam and India.
Many of China’s manufacturing areas have widespread high-speed rail networks,
subway systems and bus routes. But public transportation systems are much less
developed in countries like Vietnam, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh."

"Many Taiwanese-owned factories which were formerly established in China have
been moving to Vietnam to take advantage of lower labor costs."

"Manufacturing in one country with lower labor costs can end up costing you more.
Some factors to consider include:
Worker productivity and skill level
Factory sophistication and efficiency
Local infrastructure ..."

To sum up, China's scale of wages has long been NOT the lowest in the world.
Many foreign corporations like to set up shop in China because of the vast
supply of literate, skilled workers and well-developed manufacturing infrastructure.
This enables the Chinese to be more productive on average than most of their
Asian competitors with lower labor costs.

@duchess64 said
Vivify clings to his extremely ignorant stereotypes.

Textile manufacturers know well that the cheapest labor is found in Bangladesh.

https://medium.com/@techpacker/top-4-asian-countries-for-garment-manufacturing-b716c950cc8

"Top Four Asian Countries for Garment Manufacturing"

"China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and India are four of the largest garment exporters in the ...[text shortened]... inese to be more productive on average than most of their
Asian competitors with lower labor costs.

Chinese engineers have quite a reputation for excelling in production, if not so much in design.
That is, Chinese engineers often can take an imported (or reverse-engineered)
technology and improve the efficiency of production beyond what the originator
of that technology could achieve.

For example, let's suppose that a Western country makes a widget that interests China.
China could do its own research and development and make an equally good widget.
But the Chinese decide that it would be faster or cheaper to import the widget
and buy a license to make it. What often happens is that Chinese engineers
figure out how to improve the manufacturing process so that the widget is
produced faster or at lower cost in China than in the original country.

A few decades ago, Russia sold China a license to build the Sukhoi Su-27 fighter, which
then was much more advanced than Chinese fighters. The Chinese had some
problems initially. (There was an embarrassing incident when Chinese mechanics
refueled the Su-27s with normal fuel, never having been advised that the Su-27s
needed a premium fuel. Something had got lost in translation from the Russian.)
Western media ran a story gloating that the incident proved that the Chinese
were too backward and primitive to operate modern aircraft.

The Chinese learned quickly from their early mistakes. Several years later, some
Russian engineers from Sukhoi visited a Chinese factory building the aircraft.
The Russians were impressed enough to conclude that the (modified) Su-27s
being built in China were of higher quality than the Su-27s being built in Russia.
That was a story that Western media preferred not to report much.

@Duchess64
"Vivify clings to his extremely ignorant stereotypes"

This is the kind of wording I say is coming from arrogance.

Why can't you just say, "Vivity, you are wrong and here is why:".
Do you think it helps anyone to preface with pejorative sentences starting like that?

Please don't come back with the flag waving sonhouse or some such.

Not talking about anything in your post except the opening sentence.

@sonhouse said
@Duchess64
"Vivify clings to his extremely ignorant stereotypes"

This is the kind of wording I say is coming from arrogance.

Why can't you just say, "Vivity, you are wrong and here is why:".
Do you think it helps anyone to preface with pejorative sentences starting like that?

Please don't come back with the flag waving sonhouse or some such.

Not talking about anything in your post except the opening sentence.

Sonhouse should consider looking into the mirror at least once in his lifetime.
Look at the hypocritical Sonhouse's routine over-the-top rhetoric denouncing
writers whom he perceives as pro-Trump, for instance.

If it had been the first time (or one of the few times) that Vivify spewed nonsense
about China, then I would have been more forgiving.

But Vivify has a long record of spewing nonsense about China and typically
obstinately refusing to accept factual correction. Vivify typically likes to insist that
he's absolutely right and hurls insults or lies at me to divert attention from his errors.

When Sonhouse replies to Metal Brain, for instance, does Sonhouse always write
politely, "Metal Brain, you are wrong and here's why?" Of course not.