Wal-Mart Nation

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That makes someone you have never heard of, Chiqui (pronounced Chick-ee) Cui, one of the most powerful men in the global economy. The U.S. ran a $162 billion trade deficit with China last year and, as Wal-Mart's top buyer in the country, he is a big part of the transmission belt linking China and the U.S. A gentle-spoken Filipino, Cui, 54, is managing director for Greater China and North Asia in Wal-Mart's global-procurement department. So, for factory owners across China, he is, simply put, the man to see. Every day on the fourth floor at company headquarters in Shenzhen, scores of Chinese factory salesmen come to vendor rooms with dreams of landing a contract. They--and the products they make--are a big part of the reason Wal-Mart's prices in its 3,702 U.S. stores are so low. "If you stop stuff from [abroad] coming into the U.S.," Hatfield says, "it would mean $180 blue jeans. Is that what Americans want?''

If Hatfield sounds defensive, it's understandable. Wal-Mart's passion for buying in China makes it an easy target back in the U.S. "Wal-Mart is both a beneficiary and a driver of the race to the bottom in the global economy," says Alejandra Domenzain, an associate director of Sweatshop Watch, a U.S. advocacy group. "It has enormous leverage, and how it uses that leverage in the pursuit of ever cheaper labor has enormous consequences for communities in the United States." But that may be less true now than it was 20 years ago. The production of most of the goods Wal-Mart sells in the U.S. left American shores long ago, mainly for other countries in East Asia--Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea. Only about 10% of the firm's purchases from 2,500 suppliers in China today come from companies owned on the Chinese mainland. Andrew Tsuei, managing director in charge of Wal-Mart's global-procurement operations, says the rest come from longtime suppliers in other parts of the world that have moved their manufacturing to China in search of lower costs. That means Wal-Mart's China trade may indeed be eliminating factory jobs--but in South Korea, not South Carolina.

It is not easy being a supplier to the barons of Bentonville. "In fact, it's very tough," concedes Tsuei. Wal-Mart says it's trying to export its American-style standards and ethics to China's manufacturing sector too. In China, where sweatshops are alive and well, the company insists those measures make a difference. Suppliers, including those who sell to Wal-Mart indirectly through other companies, must limit the work week to 40 hours plus no more than three hours of overtime a day, meet safety requirements and provide decent accommodations for workers. Even those critical of Wal-Mart concede that the standards can make conditions at a Wal-Mart supplier's factory more bearable than they are at a lot of other low-wage factories in China. "When the standards are enforced," says Domenzain, "I think they are a step in the right direction. The question is, How rigorously are they enforced?"

These days, Wal-Mart is concerned that suppliers are getting extremely sophisticated at faking records to show compliance, even coaching workers before inspectors show up. "Most Chinese manufacturers don't understand why we focus on ethical standards," says Tsuei. "They ask questions like, Well, if I do this, then I'll have to increase costs. We say these are things we have to have."