This $40 Hunk of Metal Made China a Superpower

How this one unsung invention made China a superpower. Kindly sponsored by NordVPN! Upgrade your online protection with an all-in-one security app and use link: https://NordVPN.com/ingenius It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee. Developed by the team behind    / @veritasium  , InGenius is a new channel dedicated to surprising human stories about global systems and how the world works. For more content follow us on our social media accounts: Instagram - https://in49.s.gy/Instagram TikTok - https://in49.s.gy/TikTok FaceBook - https://in49.s.gy/FaceBook X - https://in49.s.gy/X Spotify - https://in49.s.gy/spotify ▀▀▀ 00:00 How An American Trucker Revolutionized Shipping 05:40 The $40 Twist Lock: Shipping Container Engineering 09:14 Why Shipping Container Standardization Matters 12:17 The Vietnam War and the Rise of Container Shipping 16:57 Yuan Geng and China’s Economic Reforms 20:17 Shenzhen and China’s Special Economic Zones 27:37 Why Chinese Exports Became So Cheap 34:39 China’s WTO Entry and Manufacturing Boom 38:44 China’s Global Ports and the Belt and Road Initiative 42:12 Can Global Supply Chains Decouple from China? ▀▀▀ Special thanks to our interviewees for their time and expertise: Dr Sal Mercogliano (Maritime History, Campbell University; Host, What’s going on with shipping? Podcast- ‪@wgowshipping‬) Marc Levinson (Economic Historian and Author, The Box) Professor Jean Paul Rodrigue (Maritime Business Administration, Texas A&M University Galveston) Dr Zongyuan Zoe Liu (Senior Fellow for China Studies, Council on Foreign Relations) Professor Yasheng Huang (Global Economics and Management, MIT) Professor Willy Shih (Management Practice, Harvard Business School), Dr Peter de Langen (Principal Consultant, Ports and Logistics Advisory; Professor, Copenhagen Business School) Professor Maria Adele Carrai (Founder and director, Mapping Global China; Politics and International Relations, Oxford University) Professor David Hummels (Economics, Purdue University) Antonella Teodoro (Senior Consultant, MDS Transmodal) ▀▀▀ References: Levinson, M. (2006). The Box: How the shipping container made the world smaller and the world economy bigger. Princeton University Press. Nicita, A., & Razo, C. (2021, April 27). China: The rise of a trade titan. UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD). https://in49.s.gy/ChinaSRiseAs Nightingale, L. (2022, August 18). One hundred ports: The numbers tell the story. Lloyd's List. https://in49.s.gy/OneHundredPorts The rest here: https://in49.s.gy/ChinaLockRefs Visual references: https://in49.s.gy/CLVisualRefs ▀▀▀ Writer, Producer & Director: Tom Heyden Presenter: Latif Nasser Editor: Alexander Langworthy Camera Operators: Tony Ahedo, Wingel Buendia & Tom Heyden Technical Animators: Little Shadow Historical Illustrator & Art Director: Maria Gusakovich Historical Illustrator: Caine Esperanza Historical Animator: Arturo Bravo Peña Researcher: Naomi Dinmore Designers: Ben Powell, Dan Ellacott Thumbnail Designers: Abdallah Rabah, Daniel Ellacott, Patryk Ziolkowski & Ben Powell Production Team: Katy Southwood, Anna Milkovic, Matthew Cavanagh, Josh Pitt & Christian la Brijn Executive Producer: Zoe Heron Additional video/photos supplied by ArtGrid and Storyblocks Music from Epidemic Sound