Wal-Mart, which mainly forces suppliers to manufacture in China, asked consumers to "save money and live a better life", but how can they live better if store shelves are empty?

In a post published by the American "National Interest" magazine, the author, Gordon Shang, said that the current situation in China seems to be the end of its central role in the global supply chains.

The Americans are angry, as announcer Maria Bartiromo said: "Leaders from several hospitals in New York told me that they have contracts with Chinese companies, as they were waiting for equipment such as plastic gloves and masks."

And remember that all these materials were on board ships heading to the United States, until the Chinese government retracted the order and retrieved the cargo on the pretext that it needed it. So the author asks: How can anyone trust China again to make business successful?

Department stores are extremely vulnerable because they are keen to keep stocks at a minimum (Reuters)

Lack of masks
US Trade and Industrial Policy Director Peter Navarro offered more reasons for cutting ties with Chinese suppliers, and he said - referring to the "95" masks used to protect against the Corona virus - "China has imposed restrictions on the export of these masks, and then nationalized an American factory." In China it is produced. "

The writer pointed out that the Corona virus revealed a serious vulnerability, as the United States is currently experiencing a shortage of "N95" masks, and it is mentioned that this type of masks is not the only thing that Americans need.

In addition, factories in China cannot work for reasons including the lack of industrial masks, so Beijing has taken steps to keep these Chinese products inside the country.

In this regard, Jonathan Pass - a Los Angeles company owner - stated that China has shown that it will prohibit the export of masks to protect its people at the expense of all people, and this shows us that the United States is very vulnerable to China's whims of reducing its exports of health and safety related products.

Whatever the types of commodities, the supply interruption will likely continue for a longer period than most analysts believe.

In Long Beach, California, Pace said that container traffic had decreased by nearly 40% due to the closure of Chinese factories, and Chinese factories were to reopen on February 9, ten days after the end of the Lunar New Year holiday.

In this regard, Simina Mysterino, a writer for Forbes magazine on the manufacturing sector in China, cited the situation in Chengdu, China, where authorities require factories to provide two daily masks per worker.

To start the production process, the factory should have a stock of masks that satisfies its need for a period of two weeks.

However, the state's defense sectors seem to be the only area to be excluded from this slow start.

Factories in China unable to work due to lack of industrial masks (Getty Images)

Noticeable deficit
The writer mentioned that even if the factories succeeded in operating at full capacity, the logistics companies are not ready, as the warehouses are closed, which makes the shipping process very difficult.

Moreover, the containers were left on the berth in Tianjin and Ningbo ports for long periods, and the containers bound for the United States were loaded four weeks after the deadline.

Some believe that the deficit will become noticeable, especially for American retailers in mid-April, but supermarkets are particularly at risk because they are generally keen to keep stocks at a minimum.

For example, Wal-Mart store shelves are likely to become vacant next month, and Apple announced - on the 17th of this month - that it will not be able to achieve its expected revenue for the current quarter, partly due to the lack of its iPhone products. .

However, the slowdown in the Chinese economy is more dangerous than many people think. With reference to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that emerged in 2002 and 2003, analysts expected a rapid recovery, but this time the recovery may be slow, partly because supply cuts are greater Much than it was at the time, even the best companies were not prepared for such a virus.

Apple relies on the Chinese market, but issued its upbeat guidance on January 28, less than three weeks before it announced it could not achieve expected revenue, an indication of the rapid erosion of China's economy.

Apple announced that it will not be able to achieve its expected revenue for the current quarter due to a lack of iPhones (Reuters)

Economic dependency of China
This brings to mind the dependency of the United States - on basic products - on China, and it appears that China's problems will lead to a shortage of 150 medicines, some of which have no alternatives.

However, the author adds that Beijing last week expressed its desire to become an important part of the supply chains of health care products in the world, but the epidemic reveals to us that we should move in the opposite direction, and this prompted us to ask the following question "Why should we become more Prone to dealing with an untrusted resource? ".

In fact, foreigners did not have a strategic foresight after adopting an unstable commodity supply system in China, but whatever the type of dependence might sometimes lead to problems, according to the author.

On this issue, Navarro said in statements to him last Sunday, "In such crises we do not have allies, and in 2009 during the swine flu outbreak, our friends in Australia, Britain and Canada did not provide us with what we needed, and Australia refused to send 35 million doses of The vaccine. "

US President Donald Trump's tariffs on China have encouraged - by creating uncertainty about the future of US-China trade relations - companies to move parts of their supply chain out of the troubled country.

The magazine stated that companies were able to provide goods at low cost when they set up factories in China, but the world now highly values ​​the cost of low-cost goods, and it is indicated that the trend towards self-sufficiency will make products more expensive, but at least they will be available.