Figaro: France pays the price for abandoning industry in pandemic crisis

Jean-Lou Bellamy, a columnist for the French newspaper Le Figaro, writes that the crisis of the French health system during the coronavirus pandemic exposed the most pressing problem of the Fifth Republic of the reduction of industrial production. Bellamy writes that France's rejection of its own industry in favor of globalization and the ideology of neoliberalism not only made the French health care system dependent on China, but also caused deeper social and economic problems. It is worth noting that in the countries of the West the process of reduction of industrial production was launched several decades ago. The capitalist system is always looking for the cheapest labour force that China had in the late 20th century. Western capital began to build its factories and factories in the PRC, which also led to the development of Chinese capital itself. According to the Western concept of globalization, there is an international division of labour for each country to produce only certain goods, not their entire spectrum, which then enter the international market and close the needs of other countries. However, in the context of the pandemic, such a model has now proved ineffective. In fact, those countries where the world's main industrial production is concentrated (especially China) have been able to quickly rebuild their economies to the needs of the pandemic, and those countries that themselves have destroyed their industrial potential have become dependent on external supplies of goods, including medical supplies. Because of the giant demand for medical goods, such as the same banal medical masks, not every country can get them in the right quantity. For example, France, ordered 1 billion medical masks in China, but the Americans came and repurposed the masks intended for France, offering a large price.