I think this is the most positive business story I have read. I don't like the environment being destroyed, but this eminently sensible women is going to be using (and paying for) recyclables and the trees that are cut I am sure will be in a way that doesn't lead to deforestation. That part will be up to Maine to control, however being 'Trump country" maybe they won't have the sense to do it. To me this is great way for people to see China as people and not the "enemy" like our unwondrous leader likes to many everyone.
65
It strikes me how anti Chinese Trump supports do not understand that the tariffs imposed on Chinese imports are passed on, and paid for by American consumers. "Tough on China" import taxes are paid by Americans, not Chinese corporations. "Tariff tough" on China is only tough on all Americans.
Chinese tariffs on American goods are also foolish. The 130 job mill reopening in America is a product of Chinese taxation of pulp.
44
Business in recycled stuff could be profitable if we capable to manage it. It also good for environment sustainability.
11
To those attacking the Chinese company taking ownership of the mill: (1) What evidence do you have that the Chinese are ruining the town or the country? (2) If you hate the Chinese so much, why not working to stop any Chinese companies from owning anything in the US?
It is hypocritical and wrong for Americans to accept the Chinese investment but attack them at the same time. You either refuse to take the money or not.
40
Which is capitalism, right?
6
For those who spoke of the possible environmental consequences.... It took European colonists and their American descendants a few centuries to wreak havoc on the environment. China has a far superior record of maintaining an economic system that is ecologically sustainable--a record that spans several millennia. China's current environmental problems are a phase all developed countries had to go through while industrializing and they are being addressed resolutely as we speak. While history suggests that China will eventually find, as she always has, a sustainable symbiosis between nature and advanced civilization, it leaves one less confident about Western countries. While such a symbiosis has always been emphasized as an ideal in traditional Chinese culture, the Western tradition has tended to insist on a hostile relationship between humans and nature--i.e., nature as something to be subjugated and conquered, or alternately, something to be protected from greedy humans and worshipped from a distance.
30
I suggest everyone step back and place this in a historical perspective. The British, Spanish, Dutch, etc. were the first to conquer and exploit the resources of other nations and peoples. America came later but its corporations now have their tentacles on every continent; from the vast orange groves in South America to rubber plantations in Asia, oil fields in all corners of our world, to textiles, clothing, technology plants in cheap labor countries, etc. So now enters a Chinese company that opens a closed plant in rural Maine and xenophobia bursts like spring tulips.
75
I would not be surprised if members of the owners family become US citizens If they do, I hope they will honestly take the citizenship oath and their descendants will be like other founding families of great American companies. Levi-Strauss. Not Trump
17
While I honor an old Mill Town's efforts to re-build, and get some money to help do just that, I can 100% assure you, Communist China IS not, and will not be, their good friend.
And (!), what a BIG bunch of Hogwash. First, Communist China sends in (get this) "Buddhist Monks from China" to the Old Mill, dressed in "I don't know what they're called; their Tibetan outfit". LET'S GET THIS STRAIGHT; Communist China did their best to crush any and all Tibetan Faith, and does NOT allow Freedom of Religion, in any way, shape or form, within the Communist State.
The peaceful, non-aggressive Nation of Tibet was stolen, at gunpoint, by Mao in 1959. Fly a Tibetan Flag in Lhasa today, or show a picture of the Dali Lama, and you go to prison, in conditions more harsh than I hope you can imagine.
Chinese Citizens are free to travel anywhere in America, without impunity. But, an American cannot travel anywhere in China, and particularly Tibet, without complete Military escort 24/7. There is zero Freedom of the Press. There is zero Freedom of anything, anywhere, in China.
Considering the recent revelation of Communist China rounding up and Imprisoning thousands (if not one million) Ethnic Minority Muslims - for "Re-education" into the Communist Body Politic - THOSE are not the kind of people that I would want to do "Business" with.
I neither trust Communist China, or this deal for Old Town, Maine. Good luck, folks. There goes the neighborhood.
34
@W.Wolfe How do you know the Chinese company is a “communist” company? There are many private businesses in China. Do you know anything about China?
35
What a shame this mill can't use recycled paper and cardboard boxes instead of pulp from trees they cut down. The US badly needs a domestic recycling industry.
55
This is typical of China's tactics. They tax raw materials from overseas factories owned by non-Han Chinese but have no issues once the source is Han-Chinese owned in other countries. WAKE UP!
14
@John
Apparently, you did not read the article. The difference in Chinese tariffs is between scrap (of which they have plenty) and virgin pulp (of which they have little). Has nothing to do with who owns the plant.
Enough with the nationalism and xenophobia. Whether you like it or not, we all share the same planet and one global economy.
41
When forests are cut down and used for paper and trees are replanted for future harvesting, the ecosystem that existed in the previous forest is GONE. It does not return to the replanted trees.
The trees are now just a crop.
The bugs, the moss, the tiny little
creatures that fed that ecosystem are all gone.
Replant all the trees you want...it's now just a field of replanted trees.
So don't ease your conscience with replanted trees. It took thousands of years to create that ecosystem and it sure won't come back because we put a few trees back with heavy machines rumbling around.
Honestly, the ignorance of humans just astounds me.
Check it out.
51
@American2020
Well, you have a point, but unless you never use paper or buy goods packaged in cardboard, your conscience should not be at ease.
But let me put you at ease.
First, the world is more successful at recycling cardboard and paper than almost anything else. But you cannot make either entirely from recycled materials: you need a certain percentage of virgin pulp (precisely why Madan Zhang needs this mill).
Second, what's the alternative to cardboard as packaging? Plastic? Have you not read about the impact of plastic scrap on the oceans? At least cardboard and paper biodegrade if not recycled.
Third, I live in the Northeast where we have a significant forestry industry, but most of it is selective harvesting, which has much less environmental impact than the clear cutting done elsewhere.
Finally, throughout much of the eastern part of the US, forests are regenerating faster than they are being cut. As farming has become more efficient over the last century, a lot of farmland has been abandoned. Indeed, ll around me I see what was once farmland going back to forest.
45
An aside: Insofar as “Feng Shui Eddie’s” fear about spirits from the nearby cemetery, I tell him what my mother told me at age four when I feared the ghosts that lurked behind the closet door of the bathroom:
“It’s not the dead you should be afraid of, it’s the living.”
58
The real story here is that American corporations, if they paid fair wages to workers and reasonable taxes, could be producing the same boxes and selling them to the Chinese, instead of the other way around. Instead, we have a company coming from the other side of the planet to "invest" in one small town, while pilfering our natural resources.
Here's an idea: How about an American company somewhere in Maine uses this Chinese business model and creates boxes that compete with Chinese boxes?
43
Chinese business investment is the future of the 21st century. It is obvious that American business is incapable of making the kind of long term investment/commitment to these kind of ventures. A bird in the hand.......
20
I spent 20 years in the corrugated industry. It used to be that there were many plants in the US that made corrugated box board, and many more plants that made boxes. The reason for so many is that on a relative basis, boxers don’t weigh much and even palletized are very bulky. So, shipping them more than 400-500 miles was not feasible. The shipping costs would outweigh the profit. Therefore, many producers. Point is, manufacturing box board or boxes in the US and shipping to China would be hugely unprofitable, so it ain’t gonna happen.
16
American Factory (Netflix)
There is really nothing more to say.
38
Thanks. I will look for it.
2
While it is heartwarming to read about a town being brought back to life, we are returning to what we started as. A colony used for its raw materials that are exported elsewhere. While in the beginning we sent it to England and France we now send it to China. A difficult position for sure, trading jobs for materials, but somehow America seems to have lost the edge on leading the world in advancements and technology. A shame. But I will not begrudge the chance for town a chance to earn a living. (With the hope that that is what they indeed do. Maybe we revisit this story in a few years and see how they fared)
37
Why can't the mill manufacture paper, cardboard, and related products from recycled-in-US materials?
17
Same reason why cotton is grown in the US, but thread, fabric and ultimately clothing is made elsewhere. We don't have the cheap skilled labor to do it.
15
So let me get this right....when I was a kid in the 80s it was clear these plants were poisoning people and the gold gravy train was ending. So we are begging for 130 jobs vs properly funding retraining and other efforts?
I guess the tides are turning; China will now start to poison us for its wealth like we used to do to them. Let the third working continue!!
18
The big mills up in Millinocket and East Millinocket are gone, sold for scrap. The mill in Bucksport is also gone. The mill in Lincoln is closed, soon to be scrapped as well. Yet the area shows much promise in a tourism economy in the shadow of the great mountain and with the creation of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. For years many former mill workers resisted this transformation, with the assistance of a very “Trumpian” former governor. There was a desire for the good old days, with unfettered access to the mill-owned woods for logging, hunting and recreation. Surely the mills would reopen some day, despite their obsolescence in the global pulp and paper market.
Old Town has seen a series of domestic investors come and go, some lasting less than a year. Now an investor comes along with the most solid, long-term opportunity yet, and those who rejected change are mistrustful because the investors are Chinese. The irony is self-defeating. Domestic pulp and paper isn’t coming back. Success will require engaging the world economy, not rejecting it out of fear.
59
I don't understand how cutting our forests in exchange for 130 jobs makes sense. So instead of sending our recycling waste over we will be sending over virgin wood pulp? To supply China's need for cheap cardboard boxes? How is this good?
Paper mills shutting down is like coal mines shutting down. It is an outdated industry. Coal mine jobs have to go. Paper mill jobs have to go. Wake up people, doesn't anyone realized we can't do this and fight Climate Change!
36
yes. we sold out long ago. did anyone really think the oldest culture on Earth would lose to the USA? HA!
15
Trees are a crop and completely renewable. The boxes are coming right back here to feed US craving for stuff we don’t really need.
16
Most paper mills are supplied from tree farms that are harvested and regrown. Clear cutting and moving on to another tract of land is not an economical way to make paper.
And as long as people keep buying toilet paper from Amazon (a paper product shipped in a paper box) these mills will be operating.
25
Maybe it is the glass of wine I just consumed, but the article mentions China’s need for recycled paper pulp as a catalyst for the purchase of this mill, and this mill produces virgin pulp from trees. ?
4
China needs pulp. Trash pulp to be recycled, or new, doesn't matter. China can no longer import for recycling. Hence, it must be new (and mixed with domestic trash pulp in China to reduce cost)
9
The documentary, American Factory, looks at a what happened in Dayton, OH, when a Chinese billionaire took over a shuttered GM factory, started manufacturing glass, and hired unemployed GM workers. Very much worth watching.
20
I love that Nine Dragins employed "Feng Shui Eddy" and flew him across the world to make sure the spirits in the graveyard adjacent to the mill don't start any trouble. So far, so good......
16
With Amazon and online shopping, use of cardboard boxes has skyrocketed. China’s growing consumer class must consume a whole lot of boxes. Plus. Plus.
8
I was disappointed there was no mention of the environmental impacts of this mill - both the deforestation (are they required to replant what they cut?) and the wastewater going into the river. Given China's complete disregard for environmental protection in their own country, I would be very concerned if I lived in that area. Environmental devastation that lasts for decades is a high price to pay for 130 jobs.
22
Trees are replanted or harvested in a way to promote regrowth. Same a what a farmer does with corn or soy - but the life cycle is much longer
Water that a mill pumps back into the river is often cleaner that what is pulled out.
9
If the GOP didn't gut the EPA, we would be fine. But somehow the free market is suppose to give us a clean environment (hint: it doesn't, and that's why China doesn't have virgin pulp)
10
China also doesn’t have the right kind of trees to make pulp...so that’s kind of a big part of it.
8
The United States has become another spoke in China’s “Belt and Road” initiative to grab all of the worlds resources. It is probably fitting as we have been the exploiting the worlds resources for the last 100 years.
21
The Chinese are investing where Americans are afraid to do so. Business is business, suckers, it’s all about money, and you Americans will take it from whoever dishes it out. You want capitalism? You got it - Chinese style! Ha ha ha!
13
A question. Would the just signed trade truce re-start US export of paper scrap to China?
5
What happens when we run out of trees?
6
Read up on Easter Island. It had trees, then the islanders cut down every tree for their use. Without trees, Easter Island died. Welcome to Maine 2050.
3
Papermakers plant more trees and are more attuned to the forest than anyone else. Trees are a crop and they plant many more than they use each year. We are not going to “run out of trees”
11
American spent most of the 20th century turning other countries into client states, their economies serving US interests. For a few decades in mid century we used the wealth brought to us by our expanding international economic dominance to invest in our people. That ended with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 who promoted an economic agenda where profits ruled. We stopped investing in social or human capital or in the programs to support our people through economic change.
We know from history that economic power is not permanent. Countries that dominate in one century find themselves reduced in the next. It's now China's turn -- they have the population that has made them the number 1 market in the world -- and the drive to be the 21st century's most powerful economy.
How do we respond? We'd do better not to wallow in self-pity but to build the programs that will allow Americans to live a comfortable life even in the face of lower wages. A national health scheme/plan, a decent social security pension plan, affordable higher education, and a fairer taxation system would go a long way towards softening the economic blows felt as the international economic system is reordered.
56
US corporations ship factories and jobs to China.
China makes the 'stuff' now consumed in the US.
The dollars earned by China selling 'stuff' to the US are used to buy tangible goods all over the world - mining companies in South America, farmland in Africa, and companies in the US.
Why is it that companies in the US that were abandoned by American owners are being bought by Chinese owners?
How much of the US is being bought up by China with money earned selling goods to the US, goods that used to be made in the US?
20
@cynicalskeptic
Hence the expression: "We sold the cow to buy milk."
11
what does it matter who owns the company as long as it provides decent paying jobs and obeying the local laws?
How many American companies are owned by Americans, can you tell and do you care? the world has changed for a long time. Ownership has long been separated from the business.
11
This is America, trump:”It’s something they strongly believe in, and we support them 110 percent”
Say good bye to your trees
Just like in siberia
10
Jobs, recycling waste paper, and a billionaire owner that actually visits the site? How could this be a problem?
7
The great, great picture at the top of the story must kill Trump and his followers.
7
HAVE NONE OF YOU SEEN AMERICAN FACTORY???? China's eating our lunch! This CANNOT stand. Greedy Chinese billionaires buy out American companies and impose their will and work "ethics" on a totally different culture. Watch American Factory documentary on Netflix! It's a horror story!
15
@BabsWC
Tell 130 workers that it is a horror story tocreate jobs for them. Tell them that it is better to sit at home to watch TV or Netflix until one day the British (probably the most preferred foreign investor class) come and reopen the mill.
8
Details are still emerging, but apparently the $200 billion obligation China has in Trump's supposedly historic (everything Trump does is apparently historic) trade deal can be fulfilled by Chinese ownership investing in US manufacturing. Is that really a good thing, especially if it goes into sectors like energy or high-tech manufacturing?
6
China is giving Americans some much belated respect with these investments. After years of flooding the US with their products and having most of that cash going back to China they are now slowing down economically and are in a period of reassessment. The only reason this has happened is because the US has the strongest leader in the world and he’s putting Americans first. The Chinese don’t scare him and they know it.
2
Umm...ridiculously false assertion.
This is just the next phase of the inevitable Chinese expansion and economic domination of world trade simply because Trump is SO weak and does not understand that even the US economy of only 400MM people will be soon surpassed by China and its 1.4bn. Only a multi lateral approach can work, and Trump is both too weak and too uneducated to understand that.
17
America is becoming a cruel version of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Only this time George Bailey is dead and a political Mr. Potter is running roughshod over our worker’s rights and the environment with these Chinese owners of American factories.
11
Northern Maine is not ‘Trump Country.” Aroostook (the most northern and rural county in the state and biggest county east of the Mississippi) voted for Obama in 2008. Then the Recession took an enormous toll on folks up North. By 2010, the County was going red again in midterm elections. The issue was the devastating lack of economic opportunity. Unfortunately, Republicans & multinational corporations have been more successful in convincing the rural white poor that they have their economic interests in mind than have been the Democrats.
13
Will the plant pay state and local taxes?
7
I was wondering if the 2,000 feet fence is an accurate statement.
2
That threw me for a second until I realized they must mean length rather than height.
10
Didn’t they make an auto industry version documentary about something like this already??
2
the Chinese are making America Great again
14
@Michael...and pretty soon they'll be taking over for good!!!!
3
one world, one people
6
@Tony from Truro you mean like the Uighurs' scenario????
5
Is the new paper (I mean, pulp-for-export) mill going to replant all the trees and reforest all the forested that will get strip-mined by their operation?
22
How is this good news? A company that used to recycle materials is now using forest?
Is the ban on importing recycling to China going to stay with the new agreement that was signed today?
7
Striping the natural resources, and now with environment deregulation ..LORAX anyone?
17
I think no one will argue against the statement Chinese are good businessman as every Chinese seems to have some idea of business/investing/budgeting. On the other hand I really cannot say Americans have the most astute business sense. Reading the comments you got a sense the far left and the far light don’t really know how anything works.
The left immediately jumps to labor and environmental rights and the right national security. The only thing they can agree on is Chinese investing in US = taking over the country and stealing from America. Some of the comments are so ignorant you’d think they really believe the “Chinese owned” plant/land will operate under Chinese laws.
Federal and state laws still applies. The employees don’t suddenly shift loyalty to China. ND put money into the mill, not taking it out so it is not a scam. The trees are from local suppliers so whoever was supplying the old mill will probably be the supplier of the new mill. If automation happened, Old Town will be supplying the mechanics to maintain the machinery, still a win.
34
@AmateurHistorian
"The only thing they can agree on is Chinese investing in US = taking over the country and stealing from America."
Really? Did you get this from Trump rally?
Just about every large companies around the world invest in another country... to make more money. Every S&P 500 companies in the US derive a large portion of their sales and profit outside of the US. They do not care about taking over the country. They care about profit. The Disney theme park in China did not take over nor steal from the Chinese. Unlike you, they created value. Starbucks, McDonalds and KFC thrive there and both US and China benefit from their success. The fools that bought "We Work" lost billions and those foreign investors of UBER have not fared well either. Investing in anything is a huge RISK and profit is never a guarantee. The previous plant closed for a reason...
If the new owner can create jobs and breath life into the community, a plant that US companies and US Govt saw no hope to revive, pray for them to get filthy rich.
5
Anyone seen American Factory, the Netflix documentary about a Chinese takeover of a former American auto factory? If so, you'll know this isn't good.
10
All the racism and paranoia in the comment section! True Trumpian Trash.
19
Chinese bought a mill in my city, a few more Asian faces perhaps. My neighborhood is still full of Portuguese social club/bars, and a somewhat dark, new China P. R. place. Turns out it is Chinese food Puerto Rican style!
18
“Recolonized by asia” — Could the reporter clarify the first asian colonozation?
7
Yeah they came over the Bering Strait during the first Ice Age, dontcha know?
Actually, I understood them to mean the colonization was happening again, not necessarily the Asian part. It was worded in a weird way. Recolonized (because the British had colonized it before) but this time by Asia.
7
I think the implication is that the colonisation now goes the other way.
2
Terrific classic Times piece. No handwringing clickbait, no speculative lefty gloom, no causes to hashtag. Just a beautifully written piece with just enough irony to make the reader smile. Thank you. More!
26
"This county is being recolonized by Asia."
What now?
Was Bosse talking about America still?
2
"This country is being recolonized by Asia,” said Katie Bosse, 77.”
Colonization of the USA never ended.
English and Dutch sea captains brought slaves here who were used to produce cotton, and tobacco as raw materials. Sea captains took these commodities to England and Europe where they made valued-added products and glorious profits -- over there. We got the hateful work of using slaves to grow crops at commodity prices for the benefit of other nations.
Chattel slavery ended in 1865 with the Civil War, but sharecropping kept blacks and poor whites in economic slavery until the end of WW-2.
Thirsty cotton is grown in the USA by foreign firms, especially in water-starved Arizona and Texas where cotton is shipped to India for making into value added textiles.
Millions of tons of corn, soy, wheat and cotton are grown here and exported -- with taxpayer subsidization. We plow topsoil to dust, pump aquifers dry and use immigrant labor on farms to supply foreign markets with raw materials. Immigrants are the new slave labor, paid poverty wages, while our tax money covers their social costs for schools, medical care, etc.
We are left with the racism slavery engendered; it's used by foreign and domestic interests in divide and conquer politics to this day and is how Donald Trump got elected.
The colonization of the USA never ended, it is alive and well, we are exploited without limit, and our useful idiots work overtime catering to foreign money.
21
I wonder whether she has viewed American Factory.
4
The NY Times writes
"Northern Maine is Trump country"
The claim is false
Here are the data For Old Town
Town Reg . Voters % D % Green % R Not enrolled
Old Town 5,655 36.7 4.1 22.2 37.0
The fraction of Democratic voters plus the Green are 40.7% or about as twice of Republican voters 22.2%
Data
https://www.pressherald.com/interactive/maine_registered_voters_democrat_republican_independent_green/
3
@John
Democrats are not much affected by facts. Rural equals Trump supporter. Urban equals Trump hater. It never crosses their minds that the universe is not binary.
4
It's ironic Mr King complained of the Chinese "... pressuring American partners to share technology.
“I think they’re ripping us off, and I think they know it, and it bothers me,” Mr. King said.
China may be guilty of stealing many things, but paper it is not. They invented paper making!
13
@tyke
They invented hand made paper. Most of their paper machines through the end of the 20th century were small machines sold as obsolete from America.
1
@tyke .. they're talking about modern technology, not ancient technology.
The NYT has written similarly hopeful articles about out of state investors buying up shuttered mills in Maine. Time and time again the NYT has reported on promises that never came to fruition. I don’t blame people for having hope, but it troubles me that the NYT hasn’t learned from their mistakes. You can’t take the word of investors. You need to check all the numbers. Follow the money! Question every claim. Dig into every detail. For instance, what is their process for producing pulp? What chemicals will be involved? What byproducts and emissions should be expected? You set your readers up to be duped every time you report a pitch without verifying the claims. The past twenty years have taught us that when it comes to reporting the claims of any new investor in Maine paper mills, you should always assume you’re being lied to.
5
@james
It is using the same process it was using when the mill was closed three years ago except that they are not going to be using bleach anymore because they are going to be shipping unbleached pulp that will be used to make linerboard in China.
1
Susan Collins' attachment to Trump, like McConnell's attachment seem to be related to Chinese companies coming to Maine and Kentucky? I know...Ohio, too. Free Trade was a beginning...…..so much of America moved to Mexico, China and the corporations are buying up our lawmakers. Well, I'm cynical and try to keep my nose out of the news. Today was an unsuccessful day...carry on.
5
@LEE I think I may make you feel worse. Remember McConnell was instrumental earlier this year in getting sanctions lifted from a Russian Company (oligarch) who then bought a 40% interest in an aluminum plant in Ashland for $200 mill? I too am cynical but these lawmakers don't even try to hide it anymore.
6
@LEE
Under Obama, manufacturers moved to China and the rest of the third world where they could benefit from low labor cost, low energy cost and minimal environmental regulations.
Under Trump, America is no longer shipping old corrugated containers across the sea to China and instead is shipping new manufactured virgin pulp, creating American jobs. Not many, but the 150 highly paid papermakers and the 100 loggers will be better off.
Plus, older trees will be cut down and replaced with fast growing baby trees that do a better job of sequestering carbon.
Excuse me, under Obama!? The American companies had been moving abroad where they can profit, especially setting factories in China starting right after Nixon’s re-establish the diplomatic between the two countries. Blaming the Obama administration is either ignorant of the facts or blindly Trump cult! BTW, China is still communist country, every thing that any Chinese company is doing must have a support or blessing of the Party. The Chinese are in for a long run with their national 5, 10, 50 Year plans for their country and people. Compare to the U.S., does Trump team operate with a plan or out of the mode of the day of the “strong “ “dear leader”?!
4
China wants natural resources ... For China . My brothers specialized mining equipment company was ruined by Chinese business methods .. In South America , they take over a mine ...It goes dark .. They dont respond to your communications , dont pay the bills you send , And dont show up at the site of the mine ! Your equipment that is leased to the mining company ? Its theirs now . Go to court ... In Peru . Or Bolivia . Or Chile .
11
OMG - I grew up in Maine. I lived in Bangor and my high school sweetheart lived in Milford, just past Old Town. I remember driving through Old Town and smelling that stinky mill! Contrary as it may seem, this article brought back fond memories :-)
(ps-Old Town had the best pizza place around back then -- GTK they have another one...I hope it's as good!)
1
@Nadia
IN the old days, that was known as the smell of money, affectionately. Most paper mills have enclosed pulping operations today, which cuts down substantially on the stink.
1
I hope that these new Chinese owners while abide by the hard won environmental regulations that now concern paper mills. Livermore Falls and Old Town in Maine were before their enactment foul smelling abominations and respiratory diseases Hells. The same for Berlin in New Hampshire whose stench was was still perceptible while hiking the Presidential Range at least 12 miles away. But maybe Trump's "EPA" will jettison these well meaning regulations. Another problem are the monstrous tree loaded trucks barreling down the local forest road with the kinetic energy of a small planet.
14
Netflix had a recent documentary “American factory “ with a similar theme
4
China is buying the world.
Its government is hybrid communism/capitalism/authoritarian.
Its people are tracked, evaluated and herded like cattle. They call it the "social credit system." Look it up--it's like something from a sci-fi movie.
This article portrays the Chinese purchase as a good thing.
Someday, when America is a foreign-owned subsidiary, we'll see why it isn't.
13
We should be planting trees to save the environment. Now we are selling them off to make China's cardboard., as well as our other precious natural resources to other countries. Trees to China, water to the Middle East and Switzerland. Worrisome.
6
Maine's White Pines grow fast. Maine's vast managed forests can easily supply this mill.
1
@jduboff
During the 19th century, paper makers cut down all of the local trees. During the 20th century, they shifted to a long term plan and there are actually more acres of forestland today than in 1900.
What's interesting is that the EU, under the Kyoto protocol, started buying wood pellets from Georgia to replace coal, since wood pellets are renewable and coal is not. Has American followed in the footsteps of the EU and followed the orders of the UN, we would have had to harvest many more acres of forestland to replace coal with renewable wood in order to maintain sustainability as is the case east of the Mississippi today.
The reason there aren't massive wildfires east of the Mississippi [which is where the majority of American forest acres are] is because those forests are sustainably harvested and managed by professional foresters. When we cut down trees, we replant.
Find something better to worry about, like the fact that Indonesian rain forests are being clear cut by fire to grow palm trees which yield "renewable" biofuel palm oil. More greenhouse gases are released than if coal were burned instead.
5
Lets see now. Chinese Govt. buys all paper from a small town mill keeping it afloat. It then abruptly stops all purchases, which collapses the mill and lives of all workers. A Chinese Govt (backed) company then swoops in, buys the dying mill for pennies on the dollar and enslaves three generations of the same workers on slave wages. Sound good?
6
enslaved? people can choose not to work there, no one is forcing them. what was state of the factory? do you read “abandoned”?
you rather let things rot?
do you understand how what is capitalism?
5
@Daulat Rao
Did you notice that no mention was made of the purchase price for the mill, only that the new owner is planning a $100 million plus investment? Guess what? They already paid pennies on the dollar for the mill because the cost to demo it is greater than it is worth. It will be another decade or two before China grows enough trees suitable for corrugated packaging and they are responding to the fact that China has significantly cut back on accepting old corrugated containers from the US.
China brings its vicious anti-freedom capitalism to America, looking for fresh wage slaves and cheap materials. Thanks to 40 years of labor destruction by right wing conservatives, America is defenseless to demand better wages and full benefits. This was always the goal of globalism, to sink the prosperity and freedom of the working class. Thanks Reagan!
8
Another multinational corporation with no ties or larger investment in the community. Their take and leave philosophy is eating up and destroying communities and ecosystems all over the world.
128
@Topher S Where were all the American investors who could have done the same thing? Donald Trump is very cozy with the Chinese so don't expect him to do anything. I thought this was a good and positive story for the town. Maybe I will check back in a couple of years to see how the town is doing. BTW have you seen the Obama's movie on Netflix called American Factory?
68
@Topher S Probably. But, a day before the old lady showed up, what was going on there?
32
@Topher S
US MBAs and corporations shipped American jobs overseas, hid profits and taxable assets outside the country, and let the industrial infrastructure decay while maximizing short term profits for the benefit of the moneyed. Proving the adage attributed to PT Barnum, many Americans blame."them dang furriners" for their altered circumstances, and look for a savior in a bloviating incompetent failure of a businessman, a serial bankrupt, and a conman.
Not every foreign investment is successful, and some of them are outright hustles (Foxconn?), but put the blame for shuttered factories, ruined towns, and ruined lives where it belongs. At the feet of 100% pure, homegrown, American corporate wizards and parasitic financial manipulators.
Who knows if this will work out in the long run, but good luck to Old Town and Nine Dragons
147
Draft 2, replaces flawed original.
Beautiful story, thank you Ellen Barry et al. Some of the comments are good and thought provoking too.
"Cathy Cashman, now 64, had started there when she was 22. The mill’s history was her history."
I hope that the honorable CEO, the ChairLady, will offer Ms Cathy Cashman a small part-time job, related to American-Chinese relations and good feng shui.
David Lindsay is the author of “The Tay Son Rebellion” on 18th century Vietnam, and blogs at InconvenientNews.net.
3
Many decades ago, my father a new graduate in chemical engineering was assigned to the pulp and paper division of a large American company. He traveled a lot to Maine and the southern states to assess the safety of mills both before they opened and through the years of operation.
I vividly remember him telling us that the company put these operations in poor states with few regulations. Labor was relatively cheap. They could dispose of their run-off chemicals Willy Nilly into the ground and nearby streams and rivers leaving them polluted for generations.
One story sticks in my mind fifty years later. A mill in one southern state disposed of their waste in “pools.”
The company built worker housing around the pools and children swam in them. Clumps of odd illnesses and cancers began. It took awhile for health providers to make the connection.
Years later I asked my dad, ( who had changed companies) why the company dumped poisonous chemicals they knew might hurt people. He remarked there were no regulations and no state oversight. The company felt they would address it if they got sued...the price of doing business.
It sounds like the Chinese may be doing a similar thing. Paying uneducated people poorly, not allowing them to unionize, and dumping their pollutants into the air and water. Underwriting a few “ feel good “ events.
Hopefully, Maine has better regulations and oversight these days.
But the 130 jobs appear more important than the health/safety of the workers.
7
ok. so don’t do it. let them stay jobless and the city gone bankrupt. they would stay pretty healthy usind stamps, you supposed, genius?
4
Why the presumption that the mill will be run unsafely? With modern equipment, fewer employees will be needed, but Mainers are far from stupid. Old Town knows how to run a paper mill. Now they have a buyer with the cash to put them back to work.
5
@It’s About Time
Your father was evil if he ignored his professional obligations in exchange for being highly paid.
He should have been ashamed of himself rather than complaining to you about the evil of his employer.
Guess what? Current paper mill employees live in the communities where the mills operate, including the chemical engineers. Their children live in the same places as the children of the other workers.
That your memory of the situation doesn't blame your own father is an example of rationalizing. You had a prosperous upbringing because your father sold his soul.
6
"Derek King, a real estate developer, was drawn to Mr. Trump because of his tough line on China. He said he had watched joint ventures form in the region and that they were not always fair, with Chinese investors pressuring American partners to share technology.
“I think they’re ripping us off, and I think they know it, and it bothers me,” Mr. King said."
Huh?? American companies want access to the China market or low cost production. No one is pointing a gun to the head of these companies to share technology. It is a simple swap .... technology and "know how" for China market access or low cost production.
9
I live two miles from the mill, the Penobscot flows in front of my home. The railroad tracks are 15 yards from my back door. When I first moved to this home 27 years ago there would occasionally be a smell, and not a pleasant smell. It would not be wafting through often but when it did I usually spent time checking out the fridge to see if rotten food was causing a stink or the garbage can. Duh! I would think. It's the mill. And driving up through Old Town I'd think wow, how can anybody stand this smell all the time? Well....when the smell means 'money' and 'way to support my children', yeah, one gets used to it pretty fast.
The trains haven't picked up yet. Am not looking forward to that.
But I'm glad for Old Town. I think the Feng shui regarding the Catholic Cemetery is pretty interesting as well as the peach trees. I might have to check out those peach trees next spring!
8
Peaches a la dioxin! Yum!!!
@sophia
You were right all those years ago to recognize that the smell of a paper mill is the smell of chainsaw-massacred trees and ruined ecosystems, toxic chemicals in air, land, drinking water, constant noise and pollution, the thunderous pounding of trucks or trains.
But some people love money than they do their health, safety, peace and quiet, and their own homeland, I guess.
The people of Old Town should take the new found opportunity to pour the tax receipts into their school system to make sure their kids have the skills to do something unrelated to paper production.
Take the receipts of today and invest in tomorrow.
14
@Practical Thoughts Your post is reflective of your name.
If they're processing softwood, it's a renewable resource. Hardwood not so much. Good to see some jobs come back, no matter who owns the company.
4
I'm looking at the Pulp mill stack in my town, wishing we had the same luck. Ours just went down last fall. The owners tried to file for bankruptcy and get a huge tax break by selling it at scrap value to a shell company they also owned (while simultaneously re-hiring their workers at a significantly reduced pay), but the judge caught wind of the scheme. Now the new owners are just leaving it to lie there. 300 families out of work. It'd be nice if this 'booming economy' stuff would finally work its way down to the little people here.
212
@bryan This can't be true. I'm sure I remember seeing a bunch of rubes in red hats saying "Make America Great Again".
Seriously though, I wish you and your region the best, and hopefully when we're rid of the Criminal In Chief, we can start to build an economy that works for working people.
44
@Hammerin Hank yeah, it's awkward being in the blue part of Rural America.
18
In a historical turnabout the U.S. is now sending natural resources to an industrial power so that country, China, can manufacture products from them. America once imported all the raw materials it needed from weaker countries so we could gain the added value via manufacturing. Now our president is bowing to Chinese demands for soy beans and virgin fiber, and our economic adversary will reap the benefits of turning our natural resources into valuable products.
As we shift from making high-value-added products, to supplying resources for others, our workers receive ever lower wages and America becomes dependent on foreign powers to make the products, and the money, while all we can do is pretend we are winning.
388
That is far from the situation. A town in Maine that had been left for dead is resurrected, buy a buyer who happens to need cardboard, and happens to be Chinese. It may be true that much of that cardboard will return to the United States as packaging for imported goods, but that still returns a viable economy to a vast region of Maine.
I believe this mill used to make fine stationary from hardwoods. Not much market for that now. Converting it to make cardboard from softwoods powers the regional economy, as it would even had the buyer been American.
35
What goes around comes around, right?
11
@John Taylor Great point. You hit the nail on the head.
9
The pendulum swings both ways. First entrepreneurs like Carnegie and the others used workers for as little as they could get away with. Then unions were formed and the middle class American was born. Then unions went too far and global corporations moved production overseas. The free for all free enterprise system is no longer working. The most successful countries use the 'holy trinity' system: labor, government, and the private sector. When in balance wages rise, quality of life rises, and factories don't shut down. Factories are repurposed, some workers might have to take a salary drop, but the machinery keeps humming.
American hubris is blinding the country. It's time to pay attention to the other paradigms. Why wasn't that an American entrepreneur turning recycled stuff into money?
313
@Issac Basonkavich Global corporations moved production overseas because they became extremely short-term and raided corporations for immediate profit. Expenses - including worker salaries - were slashed to appease the 80s gods of capitalism. It went downhill from there.
39
@Issac Basonkavich it's the wealthy 1% running things, keeping 99% of their money. Perhaps you're right about the "holy trinity" - labor, government, private sector. But DON'T blame the unions for the freefall of American economy. They're not to blame for peasant wages in India and China to make goods for American consumers. It's our CONSUMER-DRIVEN economy to buy, buy, buy that has been our downfall. We need to consume less, quit taking OP money so they can turn American workers into slave labor!
30
Many thoughtful comments hitting the main points already, so let me add:
How refreshing that China's richest person is a woman, not a man. Self-made from poverty, too: not inherited wealth. Apparently her style is autocratic, but she's actually respected for being a strong leader. Lastly, she seems sensibly dressed and quite as if she's comfortable in her own skin: focused on work, not appearance.
Now contrast all that to women's opportunities in American business.
323
@Jacksonville .. What a disingenuous point you've mustered.
14
@Jacksonville perhaps prior to praising the Chinese system for the opportunities it affords women you should consider the literally tens of millions of baby girls (small women) killed, abandoned or aborted in response to their one child policies. Would you really rather be a woman in China Rather than the US?
11
@Biz Grip what is the disingenuous point you are making?
16
I have no idea what the ND mill pays, but it is likely more than the local MaDonalds. If ND can make money here on Maine softwood pulp while meeting all of Maine's environmental, employment and safety regulations, congratulations and thank you.
224
@Mister Ed If you don't care how much people make then I guess ND can make money. By the way will you be for laws allowing people to own slaves? If you do I think most business can make money if "making money" is the only measure.
4
While I'm not a huge fan of foreign investment, this mill was abruptly shut down by the US investment firm that owned it. My company was selling equipment to upgrade the mill and I called my contact at the mill to coordinate delivery of equipment that was en route. My contact told me that everyone had just been informed that the mill was closing the following week. The new owners have reached out to us about supplying some more equipment.
228
Given environmental concerns, it seems that the mill was best off closed. Using our trees to make nothing more than pulp sounds terrible. In Canada, when a factory closes, they offer training in new fields such as nursing, woodworking and so on and people are insured there. Here people just lament the loss of the factory and move away rather than remodeling, repurposing, remaking for new businesses that work better in 2020 and beyond. Inviting artists, craftspeople, architects, even tech in. In Detroit people are building community gardens in the empty spaces, making a living selling fresh food. I don't want the Chinese to own and run things here, do you?
115
@ana Maine has a rich and healthy forest products industry and really superb forest management. The reality is that not all wood can be turned into the studs or sawlogs your house is likely made of, so some of it needs to be turned to pulp to allow the wood products industry here to survive. It’s ironic you mention woodworking as something Canada trains people in when a mill closes. They won’t get their quality hardwoods to work with if the pulp that has to be cut in the forest doesn’t have a home.
39
@ana ...tell the Native Americans about people coming in and running things.
34
@ana...I share your sentiments. Unfortunately though, they own everything here - they claimed America is 'colonized by Asia!!!'
2
So our exported wood pulp will be mixed with recycled scrap paper - much of which may by waste from the U.S. That could be helpful as the reduction in permissible scrap paper export to China is creating paper waste recycling issues here. Perhaps Nine Dragons can be persuaded to produce corrugated paper in the U.S. from U.S. scrap paper and pulp from its refurbished Maine mill - or a U.S. manufacturer could do so.
1
@Jseast
It does not make sense to manufacture corrugated board far from the end user. [It is light and takes up a lot of space in trucks, railcars and ships.] At best, they could take the pulp and turn it into linerboard and ship that to China. Most American linerboard mills have high export sales.
But Nine Dragons already has mills that had been taking old corrugated containers from America, repulping them, and turning them into low quality linerboard, which they sent to box plants close to where the containers were needed.
ND is going to substitute virgin American pulp for the poor quality American OCC they had been using until China stopped its import.
1
This is a good thing for the town. May it prosper.
Back in the day Maine would harvest the trees, trim the lumber and process the pulp, and make the finished products, everything from shiny paper for magazines to toilet paper to toothpicks. It’s not great that the plant is only making fiber.
89
@Neil Gallagher And clothespins. We made clotheespins. Forsters rolling mills in Stratton was the last of them. Now our clothespins come from China. How sad. I have a gorgeous ball bearing rolling pin I got at the Stratton mill when I was a teenager (thanks, Dad).
26
Its called the global economy. What I found interesting was the racism expressed by some in this community. Trump supporters seem to have this ingrained in their view of others who are different from them. From the looks of things this could bring some economic relief to a town that really needs it.
Maybe with time some of those who are incapable of dealing with those different from them, might learn to appreciate the common humanity that we all share. Perhaps there is a way of playing win-win if we can learn to work together.
170
@Ferniez Maine congressional district 2 elected Jared Golden , a Democrat, in 2018. There’s hope for change here.
13
So the trade war actually had a benefit for this town. The new owner, with her obvious understanding of basic economic principles, decided to secure her supply chain and her economic well-being by investing in a pulp mill. She also fully understood that the tariffs, which she would have to pay as an exporter to the US, would come out of her company's pocket and therefore decided to avoid that cost by doing business here. The end result was that the trade war forced a foreign entity to alter her business model, employ Americans to continue to provide products for her business, and kept US currency circulating in the US economy rather than being lost to our trade deficit.
6
Keep it running for 100 years? That'll be the day. Of course I'm thrilled for the folks in Old Town. But the history of Chinese run companies in the US is very rocky. They rarely make the news for obvious reasons but the culture clashes can be noticeable. I remember reading an article several years ago about a pork producer purchased by the Chinese. Seem to remember that the friction was enough that there were walkouts/strikes.
2
If they were white Europeans, nobody would care if they were foreign owners or if they were paying less and non-union. WE've been through this story before; late 1980's, it was the Japanese, then Koreans buying things up, when in fact the British were buying up more then, and they were who we rebelled against to start this country.
And remember; the Chinese especially and Asians in general, are the only people who were EVER excluded from immigrating from the late 1800's until the mid1900's.
Hey, and I'm an old white guy. Oh, and remember, we're also "Foreign owners" in other peoples countries. Why aren't those American patriots investing here?
40
"if you want one year of prosperity grow grain, if you want ten years of prosperity grow trees, if you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people." old Chinese proverb. The Chinese appear to be committed to growing people, exactly the opposite of what what trumpism promotes.
21
I wonder if the new owners realize they will not be allowed to dump their waste into the river?
8
@Dan Ryan With Trump's EPA gutting all the regulations? I think they'll find a way.
That shouldn’t be an issue with Trumps environmental policies.
Virgin pulp for cardboard boxes. It’s depressing. Are they sustaining the forest that they’re destroying?
9
@shep YES . Maine has been regrowing the timberlands for many years. My first Maine job in 1979 was planting trees(about 4 inches tall) to reforest where a pulp & paper company had cut. THAT company was eventually bought by foreign business then shut down(laying off mill workers in the state of Maine & other states).
I’m very excited for the opportunity Maine & Old Town has with ND. So pleased for the town’s folks!! I worked the Old Town YMCA when I was in college in Maine, & love that town!!
6
I can't understand why Americans can't recycle our own cardboard waste profitably like the Chinese can. This lady built a fortune by having our recyclables shipped all the way to China for processing. She only looked to the US for a processing plant after Trump's trade war blocked the export of our trash. Now she's poised to expand her empire in the US using American workers to recycle American trash? This ain't rocket science. Why can't Americans do this anymore?
20
No, Trump’s trade war had nothing to do with China stopping accepting recycling; they did that all on their own well before that. The cost of shipping wasn’t that much because empty containers had to go back to China anyway so why not fill them with trash?
Yes, but why not? What if she’s Chinese? If she was German would there even be an article about this? She is smart. Foreign investment in recycling. Sounds good to me.
2
@KP
Americans tend to use virgin fiber when it manufactures corrugated containers because it is cheap to manufacture. They do supplement with recycled old corrugated containers, which tend to make up 10% of US manufactured boxes and 85% of OCC is recycled in the US.
America has been sending poor quality OCC to China, contaminated with food, medical waste and general dirt, so China has limited the import of American OCC.
Nine Dragons is now planning to replace the fiber they used to have available with virgin American pulp.
1
When America does not take care of its own, along come the
Chinese, the Russians, you name it. They will end up owning
America.
10
Huh? She is a businesswoman, running a recycling business. She isn’t a Chinese hacker. This is prejudice hiding behind a political guise. How is she going to impact our political system? Steal our IP? Steal proprietary tech??? She is recycling trash for us. Give me a break. She is Chinese. Get over it.
8
"This country is being recolonized by Asia."
That's funny. Perhaps she was referring to the Clovis people crossing the Bering Strait, oh, 15,000 years ago?
11
American industry got started by stealing proprietary secrets from England. How ironic and human that we don't like it when China does that to us. If the Chinese adhere to our environmental and labor laws, more power to them.
Remember the movie "Gung Ho"? What's Chinese for guns ho?Oh wait, that phrase is Chinese.
It's a small world and it is no longer dominated by white male Americans. Our crazy adventures in Vietnam and Iraq and many other places have seen to that.
213
What a great story. Seems like good material for an office sequel. Best of luck to them.
4
Interesting article, follow-up in a year that goes into more depth about work conditions, number of jobs and pay, what kind of technology might be being utilized to communicate with employees, and environmental conditions around the factory etc. Maine might have a lot of trees – how will they protect that resource as well as utilize it during a time of global warming? Are the Chinese buying up forest land in Maine? Will the new owner insinuate themselves into local/state politics? Caveat emptor.
9
China has embraced the circular economy. They are simply setting up shop to the closest feedstock (east coast) to make their business work. The business owners make their real money from the tax incentives states and regional economic development authorities give. The mill and the workers are just a convenient vehicle to give Chinese managers something to manage. China does this in Africa too. They know how to develop supply chains and control markets, labor and value added-products. The promise of employment for a hundred years means they see a way to extort incentives from American for years to come and America will just buy into Chinese leadership. Sad.
6
@Past, Present, Future
They’re no different than the greedy American Industrialists we have now. Politicians are so easily influenced and bought. Got a solution? Let’s hear it.
2
@Past, Present, Future You should ask Jeff Bezos why he didn't gobble up such a sweet deal.The town needs the mill, the country needs the mill to recycle.Is it because the face is chinese that you seem to have a problem with this?
3
@MikeC It’s just more evidence that America’s elite business school don’t know how to teach discipline and investing for the long term. Nor can an American look another American in the eye and tell him/her we will build something together.
What a well written and beautiful tale of how global free enterprise is supposed to work. Supply and Demand found each other across borders and in the process revived a dying town.
7
Could the NYT please report on where Amazon obtains its delivery boxes. With the exponential growth of on-line ordering, surely there would be a domestic market for recycling the delivery material. Or is the wood pulp from this factory going to be processed into boxes in China then returned to America for use by the on-line retailers?
No wonder it is so difficult to get carbon emissions under control.
I suppose this is no worse than shipping water from Fiji 5,000 miles so some American can look chic drinking, then trashing its fancy plastic bottle. This country has gone completely insane over the past 30 years when it comes to hydrating. One gets a glass of water from the kitchen tap when one just wants a drink. However, if you feel the need to hydrate, Fiji Water sounds like a pretty cool way to do it. It's somewhat ironic that hydrating Americans are contributing, albeit in a very minor way to the burning of Australia.
12
Wow, this company makes an investment to create jobs, and already naysayers complain. There are jobs where there was none. Cup is half full.
11
@Watah Why do you think this Chinese business is in Maine looking for timber?
They have already laid waste to their available forests and now they are here for ours. Google the environmental impact of these paper mills. Do your homework.
Hey, American2020: Did you do your homework? Softwood forests are a RENEWABLE resource, my friend. Unlike hardwoods, softwood trees grow very quickly. How do you think these mills stayed in business for such a long time without denuding the state? Last time I looked, Maine was as lush and green as it ever was.
Sounds like Trumpism disguised as concern for America’s forests, to me.
2
If you are an in way green, this article tells you the state of China as far as the environment.
They have been deforesting Russia and now coming to Maine.
They have no healthy forests, they consume, consume, consume until resources are all gone.
If you pull back and look a the big picture, its very telling.
To watch small towns be ravaged by globalized companies when local sustainability is not taken into account is awful.
China appears to be following the Amazon model, cheap goods trump thinking long term about small businesses and local tax revenue.
12
That is the problem. Article specifically cites virgin pulp. Cut down trees.
INSTEAD of using recycled material, they are cutting down trees. That’s all they are using us for.
Heck they got Brazil to start burning the Amazon down for some stupid soybeans, just to feed hogs.
3
I wonder how long it will be before Trump takes 100% credit for bringing manufacturing jobs to this town?
4
The talk of "technology transfer" with the Chinese is real.
"Derek King, a real estate developer,,said he had watched joint ventures form in the north woods and that they were not always fair, with Chinese investors pressuring American partners to share technology.
In 2015 I was at Alibaba HQ in China to negotiate a contract to carry their parcels to the US. The company I represented had propriatary The talk of "technology transfer" with the Chinese is real.
"Derek King, a real estate developer, said he had watched joint ventures form in the north woods and that they were not always fair, with Chinese investors pressuring American partners to share technology.
In 2015 I was at Alibaba HQ in China to negotiate a contract to carry their parcels to the US. The company I represented had proprietary software to prevent the shipment of restricted and prohibited items.
"You'll have to put that program on our server if we do business with you!"
My answer was, "Why don't I just give you my daughters!"
7
lucky you survived, allowed to walk away and not being forced into signing the contract. let other desperate company agree to share their software to get the contract. at least there is still freedom of contract in China.
Hmmm. Not sure whether the positives here outweigh the possible negatives.
But I may now buy that Old Town brand canoe that I have always wanted. Made right there in Old Town, Maine for over 100 years. For anyone interested, they also make really nice kayaks.
15
@Dee : The way to do it is to come during their spring sale on seconds (slightly damaged, usually not even a dent, good stuff). People come from all over for that.
4
My town has experienced a couple of decades as a target for investment from Mainland China. Economic benefits sure, but also profound challenges in terms of values. Such as freedom of thought and freedom of speech.
421
@Debbie Canada How is it possible that China can restrict your freedom of thought and speech in Toronto, Canada?
I, too, live near Toronto. I certainly don't find my thought restricted!
119
@Debbie Canada
How can a paper mill restrict people’s freedom of thought or speech? The worst thing the paper mill could do is to refuse to hire people who are critical of China. But even then, those people are no worse off than they would have been had the paper mill never opened. And that could easily be prevented by passing a law against political discrimination in employment (which should apply to all political discrimination not just discrimination involving China).
49
@HO : I think she's talking about the culture at the facility. Did you read the comment below from ijarvis?
" I've manufactured all over China. The Chinese manage with an iron fist; totally top down. They accept no opinions, no dissent. Even her family characterizes her style as, "We obey her unconditionally." "
67
China's investment in the US is a blessing. Resistance due to racism is just ignorant. This is so much of the MAGA set - we'd rather burn in our own anger than step into the new reality. China is actually investing. Unlike a century ago where the west forced opium onto China and then started a war to keep the drugs flowing. The US borrowed trillions from foreign countries and it will have to pay at some point. Debt is debt. It doesn't disappear. We will have to pay or see the dollar devalue. There are always consequences. So push back, complain about $14 / hour, but when workers are out of jobs and depression and suicide rates jump up, pride and xenophobia won't save anyone.
11
It isn't really racism.
When our major New York City hotel is Chinese, and the president of the United States can no longer stay there because of security issues; when our ports are operated by foreign powers; when our drugs, computer components, and army boots are manufactured abroad; when the Chinese in particularly hold our monetary resources, then we are entirely reliant on the good will of foreign states for our security, health, military readiness, and economy.
1
"The city’s spirit flagged, as the crime blotter documented drug busts and methamphetamine labs. The City Council, struggling to fund services from a dwindling tax base, agreed to cut 20 municipal jobs. Mr. Mahan had even talked about phasing out trash collection, a service that costs the city around $330,000 annually.
“I think we hit rock bottom at a certain point,” Mr. Mahan said."
This devastation doesn't happen in a vacuum. This is a direct consequence of the neo-liberal trade policies espoused by both Republicans and Democrats since the early 1990s. A race-to-the-bottom in manufacturing that destroyed millions of middle-class jobs, replacing them with minimum wage jobs at the Wal-Mart.
Shame on America.
13
I was disappointed when I realized that the "Queen of Trash" wasn't processing paper for recycling but using live trees. Now I live in the forest and there is a lot of thinning that needs to happen to keep a forest healthy, so I'm not a tree hugger who considers any tree killed to be a crime. Trees are a renewable resource. HOWEVER, we desperately need to have real recycling. There is also a line easily crossed of necessary thinning and non-sustainable, soil destructive extraction.
I too am concerned about China exporting it's environmental damage and exploitative labor practices. Not that China is any worse than anyone else. We've done it for years.
There is a business opportunity for someone like the "Queen of Trash" to start real recycling. Like our transportation system, internet, etc. it probably needs governmental assistance to bring all of the needed technologies (research from tech schools) collection and supply lines, setting up manufacturing or converting existing manufacturers. This woman made a billion dollar industry! The world is looking for a place to recycle....Lets do it. And do it well.
22
@sharon, ho back in the nyt archives and read the stories in China no longer taking our recyclables. A key reason: we put toxic waste into our recycling, and sent It overseas where “somebody else” would deal with it. If Americans want recycling, then we ALL have to do it correctly.
PS: I’d LOVE to see those Amazon drop off rooms in apartment complexes have recycling of cardboard, and require Amazon to take back the empty boxes and packaging inside. Similar to how returnable soda cans/bottles are handled. Maine has a 5-cents per container (as do other states) deposit. Let’s add it to all our waste!!!
As much as I respect the new Chinese owners’ business skills and tenacity, the way the city hands out keys to 5 of her male family members reeks of servitude to nepotism. Americans don’t like blatant nepotism. And if she has 100 year vision, probably her children will take over, who might or might not be as benevolent, driven or as smart.
4
Thank goodness wealth is not inherited in the US. Why let me run and congratulate the DuPonts and Rockefellers for not passing on their bloody billions to their children. Oops, they already did it.
2
This is a question of national security and Chinese ownership should not be allowed in the U.S. because the companies are de facto an extension of the Chinese communist government which has proven to be completely totalitarian and inhumane and, next to climate change, poses the greatest existential threat to our country and the rest of the world!
5
If Americans won’t invest in American jobs, then we shouldn’t criticize those that are willing too.
1
America has spent $6.4 trillion on wars in the Middle East and Asia since 2001 while China quietly colonizes the world.
64
So, who’s smart - American business that hopes to do well for shareholders by searching for ever cheaper labor abroad or profiteering from foreign military adventures they sponsor; the Chinese, who grab mountains of money by employing their huge population at low wages making products for export and then plowing it into economic investments around the world; or Donald Trump, who thinks being smart is conniving ways to cheat on his taxes?
2
@EB: NYT note: attach/affix Goldstar on this comment! This person has hit the nail on the head, and maybe POTUS Tump should even pay attention, to LEARN him on how to get our country to succeed.
One resident felt like America was being colonized by Asia. And why not? America puts its resources into our military which has more money than the next 7 largest military's in the world. Totally wasted money as we lost in Vietnam and will soon lose in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mainers and other Americans keep electing Republicans whose whole mission in life is to feather their own nests and help corporate sponsors and the top few % hoard ever more of the nations treasure. Nations that behave as stupidly as we have been doing don't last forever.
19
To the naysayers: at least these folks have a job!
2
"'Most people who do this do it out of greed,” she said.'"
Yeah...not like those benevolent paper mills back in the old days who were totally altruistic and forward-thinking. Right.
17
You have to credit Zhang Yin. When she researched New Town she came to realize they really CANOE how to make great things.
Perhaps they should avoid watching “American Factory”.
4
fabulous article, thank you.
1
Good for Maine. Forget about the whiners. Maine needs jobs not the dole.
5
The simple economics of a trade surplus is that the excess consumption eventually results in a pile of money that is spent on capital investments in the country running the trade deficit.
2
I urge the current management of the factory to do some research about Tibet, China, and Fung Shui, and mostly about confusing them.
They'll be sorry.
1
Maine may be wishing they had not sold their trees to China when climate change really hits. Just say........
4
I subscribe to a website that frequently publishes old color photos of American downtowns in the 1940s and ‘50s. It is heartening to see how vibrant those communities used to be, with thriving independent stores and well-dressed shoppers on the sidewalks.
At some point, we lost this sense of community and pure greed took over. That’s why no Americans were interested in restarting the mill and, in the process, restarting a community. While the Chinese have come to the rescue, I would still encourage workers and residents to watch the documentary, “American Factory,” to see how all the sweetness and light brought by new foreign owners can quickly go south.
I also share the view of some residents that the Chinese are finding more and more ways to infiltrate — and perhaps undermine — our culture. I would consider this Chinese influence a healthy thing if it did not come from a nation run by autocratic thugs dedicated to stealing every piece of American technology in sight.
13
Everyone must watch American Factory available on Netflix. Chinese businesses are shrewd long term players. Thanks to Twitter and the news cycle, our collective attention span and ability to think critically and strategically has atrophied to the detriment of our future.
The real tragedy here is the lack of potential US businesses interested to buy/revitalize the mill and by extension the town. I presume the town/state leadership exhausted all domestic options?
23
I assumed - wrongly- this mill would be a model of a major recycling resource for the cardboard and paper industry.
Nope.
10
I thought the article made it pretty clear: to make cardboard strong enough to package all those Chinese exports, Nine Dragons needs fibers stronger than they can now get domestically and their government prohibited importation of stronger American scrap paper. The company needed a source of fibers, which grow in Maine. Apparently, they are allowed to import the pulp but not the recycled paper, so ND took advantage of that. They say they plan to run the plant 100 years. But they really mean they hope to, because the dictatorial Chinese government could decide tomorrow that to get a better deal in negotiations with Trump they will prohibit the importation of US pulp as well... and then where would be ND be? In an Old Town up the Penobscot without a paddle.
Our embrace of fundamentalist capitalist policies which emphasized short-term profit and stock market growth has resulted in the destruction of the working and middle classes. The US economy has not invested in its work force (in terms of healthcare and basic education) nor its infrastructure such that it can't be competitive anymore in anything that requires labor. We're losing ground in scientific innovation (the tech sector -- apps, and the Uber-of-anything, is not scientific innovation). Only a balanced economy, where everyone is doing well, or at least have the tools and hope that they can do better), and not one that profits only the wealthy, can save us. Until we have that, China will continue to buy us up. It might be "reverse colonialism" or whatever people want to call it, but wealthy nations look to "colonize" others through economic exploitation, and the US, and most of Western Europe, did just that. It's pointless to bellyache about China buying us up, we're letting it happen! We need to start voting in politicians who support more distributive economic policies. And that is not about taxing the wealthy, it's about healthcare, and education, and industry oversight and regulation, and labor protection, and infrastructure investment, and campaign finance reform, and all those things that only over a LONG TERM will work together to lift everyone. But I fear the average American voter is too simple-minded and impatient.
25
"China" is labeled as this Mill's savior in the title -- can we stop labeling a diverse country as some monolithic entity?
Unless there is evidence that Zhang Yin is somehow acting as an agent of the Chinese government, this is just a (quite small) private equity deal - the buyer just happens to be a citizen of PRC.
14
Many believe that every big business in China is controlled by the government if not an outright arm of the government. The government controls banks and business loans and so much more. Sure, there are successful people in China but they know how to win and hold the support of their federal government... or they do not become or remain successful or wind up in jail.
1
Our pride played a role here. When American companies opened up new plants in Asia, ppl there never struggled or questioned it as "American invasion";
When Chinese bought up a plant and tried to run it as they desired, the resistance was present every time.
This is fair but ppl can choose not apply. Just don't talk about it as if "aliens have arrived"
11
Minimum wage laws and labor rights would go a long way toward addressing the hollowing out of the middle class. This Chinese owner is here for a reason. After China has damaged and is continuing to damage its environment, they don't have the natural resources they need. Income inequality is not something that has to be accepted. This can be fixed so that quality of life is not a hollow slogan.
2
The irony of it -- a country moves into a foreign area, takes advantage of their resources and people for pennies on the dollar, then pushing the final product out the door to the homeland. Sound familiar?
Except for a few years in the mid to late 90's , we have steadily borrowed our way as a country into a debt that threatens to choke us. China is to America as Chase (et al) is to the ex-middle class.
4
Another movie comes to mind besides “American Factory”. The original Twilight Zone with Rod Serling, specifically the episode “To Serve Man”.
1
Maybe they will open a Chinese restaurant in Old Town.
1
The person who explained that ‘China doesn’t have trees is why the Chinese are spending in Maine’ nailed it. When Maine trees are gone - I’m willing to bet the new owners will not contribute to regional reforestation efforts - the Chinese will leave behind a first-world ripoff of Paul Bunyan magnitude. Notes: 1.) the Kraft paper making process used here spews much foul-smelling, oxygen-depleting effluents to air and water unless, that is, long standing US EPA treatment standards are maintained. Keep your eyes on that space - whether Republicans argue to deregulate so our Northland environment can be made as horrid as China’s; 2.) one can not go on recycling paper board forever as the fibers gradually shorten and, as a result, tear and puncture resisting strength is lost. Virgin fiber from new pulp must be added. That’s the other reason why they are in Maine and the reporters totally missed it. 3.) hauling raw US forest products to China to make paper board there adds much less value and fewer jobs than making cardboard here and filling them here. It’s also a wasted of fuel, with a big carbon footprint. And as the man said: they got no trees.
13
Napoleon Bonaparte said more than two centuries ago about China: Look at the sleeping dragon, one day it will come and shake the whole world". With the emergence of China in modern day, that time is coming soon. Be prepared.
5
A commenter writes, "Stunning that the reporter and her editors didn't insist she visit the nearby ND factory in Maine and talk to the people in Munford." and goes on to say, "The Chinese manage with an iron fist; totally top down. They accept no opinions, no dissent."
No, the Chinese are not driven by altruism and an overwhelming desire to breathe life into a forgotten and dying town. To think so would be insane. However, the fact remains that towns like this have been failed and left to die by our very own robber barons. That is why there is room for the Chinese, or anyone else with a few bucks for that matter.
9
So ,the depletion of our natural resources ...i.e. our trees, makes this a good deal? Really?
Towns like Old Town throughout Maine have been dying for years because they stopped making a profit cutting down and processing trees. That’s what they have in Maine as King said: mainly fishing and forestry, exploitation of the environment... and a little tourism and the memory of the shipyards.
This image is priceless. It says so much of how the world is and how myopic Trump is.
3
If American businesses cared about Americans we would not have one town in this country going under. Wall Street that Trump is always bragging about hasn't cared about American in decades.
Johnsons and Johnson used Americans to sell opiates to and increase the shareholders profit . They have destroyed communities. Why didn't Amazon build a ware house in this town, educate the people and provide meaningful well paying jobs with health care,benefits? Why because they didnt care about American citizens. Just buy from Amazon this is all they care about. Facebook lets take away your privacy to enrich themselves. Yahoo , google helped China follow their citizens who had the nerve to think so they could make money .
This is a very sad story about capitalism and for all who laugh at Bernie/ Warren this is the truth of what is happening to Americans that they communicate to the public everyday and people fail to listen. Are the Chinese going to put American citizens in reeducation camps because they are Muslims?
They going to tell Americans how to act, destroy free speech or act as if sanitary conditions don't matter in the work place?
Thank you corporate America for turning your back on American citizens and allowing the , to move in because they offer jobs for people who have been ignored just look at what is going on in Hong Kong ?
Thank you Wall Street and the GOP politicians who care nothing for American and democracy.
10
The combination of China's economic might and authoritarian culture should make everyone look long and hard at this kind of intervention. I'm a liberal Dem and am horrified by Trump, but he has it right about China in terms of our economic relationship. They've been happily selling us cheap candy while our economic teeth rot. It's bad and it won't get fixed by a piece of paper with signatures on it. We have to retake control of our own economy, not sell it off like some mortgage derivative.
4
I think they buried the lede here - the real issue they are switching from recycled paper to virgin pulp for cardboard!!! This will lead to more lumbering, all to replace the major consumption for recycled paper. Global warming anyone?
No doubt they will run the mill as a typical sweat shop they would back home. The Trump rollback of EPA regs will allow them to pollute with impunity much as they do back home too.
It may help the town's economy in the short term, but at what price for 130 jobs?
11
So, Old Town gets 130 minimum wage jobs and a Chinese Billionaire gets Maine's forest. What a great deal!
32
The people of main are good serfs and loyally send their masters representatives to congress and the senate. They should have no problem learning to cower before their new industrial overlord.
Its funny how these very same people will go to a Trump rally, (and you know they voted Trump), will scream about socialism, liberals, leftist, etc., and them complain here about capitalism. Do they not understand this is capitalism in its purest form? Do NOT they see their complicitness in the current situation? At some people like this and all of us need to stop thinking "I only care about my five block radius". We live in a global economy. China get its it. Why can't the US understand this? We led the charge!!!
8
Any town with population supporting trump gets what they deserve. I am sure the Chinese will make this town whole again hopefully without anything from trump'
2
This article is astoundingly bereft of analysis and context. Factories like this are both a symptom of and a precipitating cause of middle class America in decline.
Shame on NYT for this nonsense.
4
This is good news but I will be curious to see how the new owners react when the Maine DEP tells them they can't pollute Maine's rivers, regardless of how many jobs are created.
As far as any negative reaction from the locals - this is central/northern Maine thing - outsiders are suspect and resented.
8
Good story, thoughtfully written. So many towns have been devastated like this and hoped for a savior to rescue them. Unfortunately wages will be low, conditions will be rough, and ultimately, we have simply become a source of raw material (trees) for a growing Chinese economy. This not a bright shiny future. In the end, this is just another part of the Trumpification of America: the wealthy exploiting the 95% and leading us into a new age of Robber Barons.
9
Can't grow bananas in the US, so (horror!) we import the "natural resources" of tropical countries to get them. Done entirely by a few US companies.
Hard to grow anything except trees in Maine, so it is practical to export their products from Maine. Pulp technology is already well-developed, so not much in the way of secret technology. If the US investment community does not see long-tem value in this, good that someone else does.
If a 64-year-old does not understand why she was not hired for the mill, she may want to consider the employer's perspective on this.
11
Shows how ignorant a yahoo I am, living out in New Hampshire, thinking China is a communist nation, and yet it has billionaires!
Of course, this billionaire speaks of providing jobs for generations of workers in this Maine town, so this is a different sort of capitalist/communist apparently.
Does Mr. Trump know about this Chinese entrepreneur? Is he planning on building a wall on the Maine/New Hampshire border?
3
Reality Check the demise of Made In USA all began with NAFTA1 ,
1
Here's a better reality check: low-skilled jobs have left the USA because of high wages and low productivity. Note that ND is shipping the pulp back to China where they will make the cardboard with lower cost labor.
1
China has a long term investment plan and they know what they're doing. It’s understandable that residents of this mill town would be happy that the paper mill was brought back to life. But it’s also easy to agree that this country is being recolonized, and that the town is handing the keys to the city to a Chinese tycoon. We also need to pay more attention to what’s happening to the recycling industry as a result of the US China trade war, and the number of jobs in the paper recycing and mill sector throughout the country that will be lost.
5
I’m glad for Old Town, but this just underscores how little long term, capital investment US companies make these days, despite all the tax cuts they’ve benefitted from. While US companies funnel cash to shareholders, investors and executives, it’s left to the likes of Nine Dragons and other foreign firms to actually invest in manufacturing capacity.
39
@Philip You nailed it! To the Americans who don't like this, you should be mad at all the Pirate American Capitalists who stripped out Assets
6
@jervissr
Look how the private equity firms have sucked the blood out of American manufacturing. They pile on debt, take out their profits and then leave the remains to the bottom feeders until they find a way to declare bankruptcy. For this they get the tax breaks, reduced taxes, or do we call it corporate welfare.
4
This doesn't sound like a paper mill at all. It's a pulp mill designed to take US trees, convert them to pulp bales that can then be shipped to China for the majority of the value-added. Pulp mills are quite automated (few jobs) and environmentally stressful. I fear that at the end of the day, the people of Maine will have clearcut forests, water and air pollution and relatively few modestly paying jobs. I think we are becoming the definition of a colony.
75
@Honey Badger Sadly, Maine has always been a colony. This year is the 200th anniversary of Maine getting statehood after 200 years of being a colony of Massachusetts.
4
@Honey Badger. Who is responsible for this? Other countries didn't get us where we are today.
3
I have lived in Maine. This is a great story, it gives me hope. The promise of this country is people of all creeds and colors coming together to build a better world for themselves and their children. We are strong when we welcome strength for foreign lands ..... and that strength ultimately becomes no longer foreign but American in the best way. E pluribus Unum. Out of many one. But I might add no thanks to Trump..... but in spite of him.
4
Even the best reporters sometimes miss the obvious question: How much are these 130 employees being paid? Any benefits included? Would appreciate a follow-up.
29
@Susan if you read the libertarian apologists down this thread, you'll note that it really doesn't matter what people get paid or what benefits they receive. All that matters is that they are paid as little as possible and receive as few benefits as possible in order that the corporate masters fill their coffers (and don't pay any taxes either, if possible). It's always about maximizing shareholder value and nothing else matters.
2
@mrfreeze6
That's why we need a follow-up. Maine has tight environmental laws and a strong Democratic governor and a democrat-led legislature. 130 well-paid jobs may set a positive precedent for other potential investors.
Zhang Yin is not investing out of the kindness of her heart, this is an excellent opportunity to take advantage of an economically distressed area and gain access to raw materials and land in the wealthiest country on Earth. Remember, the Chinese Communist Party holds the power to strip their citizens of wealth and property, whereas the U.S. has rule of law. Whether or not these American workers are getting a good deal will no longer matter once automation replaces them. Chinese businesses do not care about protecting the environment, one thing they have in common with Trump. These two looming existential threats – automation and climate change – will have profound consequences for the quality of life of the average American. We need a government that is proactive about these threats, not reactive.
17
Vote for Andrew Yang - he has a plan for automation.
Colleges and universities in the United States are becoming an increasingly popular study destination for Chinese students, with over 369,000 to take courses there in the 2018/19 academic year.
Business and management courses led the field in terms of what Chinese students were studying in the United States.
2
An industrialized country seeking natural resources from across the sea? That sounds like 19th Century England, and we're the third world colony. What happens when the trees are gone?
21
We are being taken over for sure. Serves us right.
2
How about replanting them? Does Maine not have managed forests?
1
@The King England took almost all the tall White Pines growing near rivers when Massachusetts was its colony. Surveyors from the Royal Navy would sail up the rivers and mark all the best trees to say no one could cut them except for the Royal Navy. They were called King Pines.
3
Awesome. Now the Northern Forest can again be denuded, while prices for recycled paper and cardboard continue to plummet, and a handful of American workers will be paid starvation wages.
Heckuva job, Angus!
18
Another take on Old Town and how the employer that put the "Old Town" in Old Town...Old Town Canoe.
"While the company was bought by Johnson Outdoors, now a publicly-traded company, back in 1974, operations have remained in Old Town despite increased competition from overseas and the fact that the factory is some 4.5 hours north of Boston.
"Many of its 150 full-time employees have also worked for the company for decades—some employees have worked for the company as long as 30 years—which tells you something about how special the place is given the long and harsh winters residents have to endure."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/darrendahl/2018/08/02/how-a-120-year-iconic-brand-remains-the-talk-of-its-town/#391369833928
4
I betcha people working at Old Town do not think of it the way you describe, having to endure the harsh winters, etc. I know Central Coast Maine where I have Relatives and friends. Mainers (aka Mainiacs) are rooted like the trees. The people making the canoes are not migrant workers, they are people from longtime Maine families and what they’d find tough to endure is leaving the safety of the place they already know even if it were for more opportunity elsewhere. The cold, the snow, the lack of creature comforts like cell service or living town centers is just like the temporary minor inconvenience of an ice storm compared to the wrenching trauma of moving away to the land of the Summer people.
@Pottree - Despite your claim to the contrary, you seem to know very little about Maine. Are you simply making things up? Please friend, do your due diligence before spouting inaccurate information. Lord knows, there’s quite enough of that these days.
Peace
After reading the comment section, I feel so sad that how hostile people are being toward China. I don't feel like I see much good words about China now, just evil, caution, bad...
5
I agree. The lack of union jobs is indeed concerning, but claims of “recolonization” are ill founded. Do huge agricultural exports to China mean we are being treated as a colony? What really seems to bother people is that it is Chinese capital being invested in the US. As others have pointed out, why are US investors not doing their jobs?
2
As long as Chinese investors play by our rules, we should not object. They should pay a decent wage, abide by our environmental standards. If the workers voted to unionize at some point, that should be respected. While the jobs they are bringing is important to this town, we need to make sure the trade offs are worth it. This article doesn't discuss what the pay and benefits are. I think that is important. Did they get tax breaks to start up? That wasn't discussed. The article doesn't provide a lot of details that one needs to determine whether this is really a great deal for the town, or just a great deal for the shrewd Chairlady.
14
Old Town should immediately set up a screening of
"American Factory".
This will serve as fair warning for the perils that still lie ahead.
I wish them luck.
2
Having worked in healthcare all over rural Maine and across the country, I have a lot of empathy for the people of rural Maine. Income opportunities are poor, the people are older, sicker, and generally less educated. Businesses are closing as they can't find or afford labor. At this point, you are starting to see a self-fulfilling prophecy of cyclical stagnation.
Many in the 2nd Congressional District certainly haven't been of any help to themselves. CD2 has routinely voted red, often against their own self-interests in need. Outside of a few metropolitan (metro by Maine standards, anyway) enclaves such as Lewiston-Auburn and Bangor, there is a stubbornness to cling to conservative ideology and policies that simply does not address individual and societal needs effectively.
Politics is as much about culture and people as it is policy. Culture changes slowly and I can only hope that CD2 starts waking up to the fact that free market, hands off policy will only see to the acceleration of its economic and social demise.
32
@Tempest CD2 has not voted red routinely. Mike Michaud, a union rep from up the river in Millinocket won election to Congress 5 straight times until he decided to run for governor in 2014. Michaud was preceded by Bruce Baldacci of Bangor who won 4 straight time. Before Baldacci, Olympia Snowe, a very liberal Republican represented the district for a long time. A Republican won twice because the Dems nominated a not widely known state legislator from the midwest. Jared Golden took it back for the Democrats in 2018.
2
So 150 ish people get jobs, (usually at a lower hourly rate and less benefits) and another 1,000 stay jobless. When will everyone understand the only hope to these areas is to introduce training for automation? Seeing the joke with the Fuyao glass plant in Dayton has not really done anything to help that area since GM left.
3
You fail to see the bigger picture. More than 150 people now have jobs that they didn’t have before. Perhaps the mill will expand or take on additional shifts increasing the number of employees. The influx of economic growth will lead to other businesses opening still creating additional jobs. You must start at one point to continue onto the next. Nationalism is not, and never will be, the answer. Cooperation between countries and a desire to work together is the better course of action. In Ohio as well as Maine too many people support trump and republicans when it has always been against their own interests. That cycle of ignorance has to end.
6
When our industries are allowed to become subject to the controls of a foreign government, we are less free and less united. The big question is this: why aren’t our own companies interested in investing in American workers? I do t know the answer. However, we will soon find out that Chinese (e.g., those mentioned in the foregoing article) and Russian ((think Russian backed Kentucky aluminum plant sponsored by Moscow Mitch) investors are more interested in gaining power in the U.S. than in creating jobs. They immediately want and get huge tax breaks and significant rollbacks of environmental safeguards. The more American-owned lints close, the more opportunities potential/outright enemy countries can move in as “saviors” and get what they want from this administration. And poor Americans are bamboozled into thinking Trump has “saved” their paycheck .... despite their paychecks are cut in half. And Trump’s welfare/food assistance requiring work for assistance fits hand in glove with foreign owners who want more work for less money and less regulation fir higher foreign profits. So the more poor people Trump can force into working at poverty-level wages, the more Trump can claim decreased unemployment and public assistance. Wake up America! The system is rigged against its workers.
3
"The mill restart had proven a struggle, as the new owners grappled with equipment that suffered from years of neglect, said Mr. Kerschner, the mill manager.
“They were squeezing the life out of it before,” he said."
Western Capitalism has always been red in tooth and claw
Short-term profits are more important than the long-term health of the planet, humans and all living things.
19
I strongly recommend watching the documentary American Factory. Chinese “saviors” are aggressively anti-union, don’t pay very well, cut serious corners related to safety and quality, and replace all the American workers with Chinese workers. That’s the future we can look forward to under Chinese overlords.
6
So workers who feel cheated or mistreated can leave to find work elsewhere. They could do this right now if they truly wanted to.
1
Paranoid, are we?
This sounds like good news for Old Town.
Peach trees are not very hardy in northern Maine. Apples would be a better choice along the fence when the peaches die.
2
From "Kipling Sahib" by Charles Allen - "God made us different--you and I, your fathers and my fathers. For one thing, we do not have the same notions of honesty and of speaking the truth . . .You come and judge us by your own standard of morality--the morality which is your tradition . . .Who are we to have your morals, or you to have ours."
In so many ways I believe it is time for everyone to ease up and be more accepting of others ways. So many of us have dug our heels in - with my way or the highway. This is not helpful in any society.
3
The sad thing is that there was no American investor interested in doing what ND has done with this business. American private equity companies take advantage of the tax code to buy distressed businesses, slash expenses, strip away assets,and load the company up with debt, and pay themselves lavish fees before moving on to their next "investment". Ms. Zhang appears to be in the business of building wealth, not stealing it.
No wonder the Trump supporters quoted in the article don't understand or trust her.
24
Luckily the Chinese are right at home with New England’s third world level lack of labour and environmental laws! Enjoy your new overlords.
8
For those wondering why the US financial sector ignores investment opportunities here at home this NYTs article provides some insight.
"Want to Do Something About Climate Change? Follow the Money"
'Chase Bank, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Bank of America are the worst offenders.'
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/11/opinion/climate-change-bank-investment.html
5
Well super. More foreign money buying up America. We won't be the United States soon, we'll be a territory China.
1
It is fascinating to see the reaction of Americans when China and Russia model the practices of western capitalism.
"How Harvard Lost Russia"
'The best and brightest of America's premier university came to Moscow in the 1990s to teach Russians how to be capitalists. This is the inside story of how their efforts led to scandal and disgrace.'
https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b150npp3q49x7w/how-harvard-lost-russia
2
Virgin trees to pulp to ship to China for cardboard?? Are you kidding me? I was hoping this would be a story of recycling paper in the US. This is ridiculous.
33
All part of the China plan to get leverage. Send a CCP rep to buy a foreign company, wait a few years, and then have economic leverage over the invested in country. So much more cost effective than the American war-based model of influence.
12
@Monsp
China is merely replicating what western powers have done for the past two centuries.
Send an East Indian Company rep to buy a foreign company, wait a few years, and then have economic leverage over the invested in country.
9
It almost seems like China's plan - drive US companies out of business, let them lay fallow until they become eyesores and a drain to maintain the shuttered locations, then sweep in, buy them and impose YOUR country's (China's) low wages and no regulations in order to "save" the unemployed.
5
@DVargas Perhaps, but none of that could be accomplished without the willing accomplices in the US economy, namely consumers . If we insist on getting everything at the rock bottom price then wages, working conditions, and US power is going to deteriorate. And, I’m willing to bet, environmental conditions as well. But, hey, we can buy lots of tchotchkes cheaply so, party on.
23
@DVargas
"drive US companies out of business" Who are you kidding?
What factors drove the mill out of business in the first place?
"low wages and no regulations" is the mantra of the Republican Party and the current Trump administration.
10
Namely, the financial sector where they make nothing but trouble and create nothing but expensive agony.
Lack of stricter foreign investment laws have allowed those involved to reap billions at the expense of everyone else. I recognize we live within a global economy. However, there is no excuse for allowing any foreign entity to purchase and retain ownership of most of the real estate in both the US and Canada. We may live here, but China, in particular, is the landlord. It's all about the $$$, people.
4
@K McNabb
In 2017, Chinese investment made up about 29% of total foreign investment in U.S. commercial real estate, ahead of Canada, the second largest foreign investor, which invested $13.1 billion.
New York City, the main recipient of Chinese investment into commercial real estate, was home to many of the largest deals of the year. Of the ten largest transactions in 2016, half were in Manhattan and 63% of those deals were in office buildings - à la Trump?
1
It seems like a simple thing: the investors want a product and Maine is the best place to build it. And they are putting their money behind it. Capitalism, pure and simple. No Chinese hidden 'take over the world" motive here.
17
@Ivehadit Not yet. The footholds are absolutely everywhere.
5
Thank you NYT for bringing this to light!
It is interesting how capitalism from another country is coming into the U.S. to take advantage of our resources. What a turn in the tide.
It should be interesting to see how this endeavor evolves between our republic and a communist country.
6
@CB
We continue to have many "endeavors" with dictatorial and non democratic nations so what's the difference?
It is indeed interesting how many people have forgotten Western colonialism and imperialism in regards to China.
It remains to be seen if the US will continue to be "primus inter pares."
@Alex - Read the article again. There are two Mr. Kings mentioned. One, the Honorable Angus King, I-ME, is a United States Senator and clearly not a trump supporter and the other, Derek King, a real estate developer and trumpian.
4
Don't blame China. People in the US is hard to start their own life after they grow up. Why? They have college tuition loans. They need to pay huge medical insurance if they are self-employed. The child care is expensive, but their parents are not retired so they cannot help on child care. What a bad cycle! Look at Chinese. Their college tuition, health care, food, child care are affordable. Young people can save money to buy house and parents are retired so they can offer help on child care. What a good cycle! Now Warren and Sanders offer this good cyle option. But people stick on Biden. Why does a 64 old woman need to apply for a job? Is it sad?
12
It should stay out of business. Hemp is the best source for paper products.
5
@Robbie Heidinger Can hemp be grown in China?
@Robbie Heidinger Agreed!
1
Point of of interest. Will mill conform to US environmental laws. Remember all profit goes back to China. China's rivers are grossly polluted. I've been there.is China sending polluters here? Don't know!
5
You need to think positive, give it a chance. Never listen to politicians, propaganda is part of their game. If people start making a good living, then that is fine. Humans are humans all over. Good jobs, family, friends, that is all we got folks. No one is getting out of here alive.
4
The race to the bottom gets faster. Pretty soon America will be the place to manufacture things in the world because of cheap labor and loose environmental regulations. Then the Koch’s of the world will build palaces somewhere where it’s clean, because they can afford to.
5
With the owners of American business increasingly Chinese one wonders how we will immunize our labor policy from foreign influence. It was bad enough having American corporate titans using, abusing, and abandoning American towns; Chinese owners will care even less.
2
I grew up in Dayton, Ohio, a big GM town until the company went south, spent a summer in the north woods of Maine and then worked for Mead Paper. Not every foreign investor will satisfy the locals or be successful, but in the case of Old Town and ND they have all the right motivations and resources. Maine has vast forest lands and a long history of managing this renewable resource. Congratulation Old Town for your New Start!
12
Watch the Oscar-nominated documentary "American Factory" on Netflix to get an idea of where this is headed. It's about a shuttered GM factory in Ohio that a Chinese company bought and repurposed to make automotive glass. Also nonunion, like this new venture in Maine.
People who used to make $29/hour for their union GM job are making $14/hour for the Chinese company. Why didn't the reporter talk about the jobs at this Maine mill? What do they pay? Are there benefits?
Also: Chinese company in Ohio didn't like American environmental laws or work safety laws or labor laws. They spent about a million dollars to defeat the union there. And after weeding out the malcontents, it looks like the Ohio factory is humming along now, paying just-above poverty wages to folks resigned to making do with what they got.
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@Tee The $29/hr plus benefits union jobs are history. Even the Trump feds say $7.25 minimum is ok. Forget about $29/hour coming back from any factory employer, wherever they come from. $14 to start is the going rate, if you are lucky.
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@Steve Yes, American people have accepted this--contributing their labor to the making of a few privileged billionaires in exchange for the bare minimum to get by. What American corporations have done in developing countries is now being done to America.
322
@Tee Haters will hate: Ms Zhang started at the bottom and, through her hard work, got to where she is. No wonder she has no tolerance for the entitlement mentality that accompanies unionization.
Some may decry the fact that these folks( and those in American factory) are making less than they did under unionization. However, when making that comparison, one should consider the fact that under unionization, those workers have earned zero over the past 3-4 years.
65
Zhang Yin is the visionary a lot of us would like someone, anyone, in our own towns and territories to emulate. We need more people just like her to spin old tires into gold and old cardboard into new boxes. Amazon and Wayfair and eBay have to ship their inventory in something and the sooner profits can be made in recycling the endless, perpetual "waste" in our dumps and landfills the better. The Chinese are ascendant right now, and are investing in projects all over our planet. They recognize they are going to all these resources in their country's future and have been jumping on oil refining, transportation, paper manufacturing and lots of other quotidian enterprises for years now. If the humble cardboard box can keep the schools open and lights on in Maine and Minnesota maybe, someday, even home-grown USA-firsters will figure out how to do this too.
255
Sounds great, but there’s a downside: bye-bye trees. This might be to our detriment. Watching and waiting...
79
@DD You understand how tree farming works, right?
57
@Mike You understand that forests are more than trees, right?
93
China’s investment in Australia is a good harbinger of how this kind of relationship develops. Essentially, there is a large investment by a Chinese enterprise that creates a relatively small number of jobs extracting raw materials. For Australia that might be coal and here it is wood pulp. Either way, the raw material is shipped to China where it is used for real manufacturing plants and jobs. US Politicians will, like their Australian counterparts, become increasingly beholden to maintaining the relationship in order to keep a paltry number of jobs and so be increasingly willing to compromise on environmental and worker standards. Having lost the trade war, America is joining the long list of developing nation, which initially feel grateful to get a a cash injection by selling off their natural resources to China. America has started its surrender in the economic battle.
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@TEB
I see, so the millions of people in America who don’t have the education or skills to get jobs other than as factory workers would be better off sitting at home and succumbing to substance abuse.
Since American investment is now based on quick returns workers and everyone else should be grateful for any businesses looking to invest for the long haul.
The company bringing back life to this town was created by a woman who faced challenges you and most Americans can’t even comprehend. This investment does more than create jobs, it creates hope to build on.
28
@TEB Canada is characterized as being known for raw material hullers beholden to the United States. Now you know how Canada feels. But Canada ticks along
16
@TEB : So you would prefer refuse them and keep it shuttered? To me, that is surrender.
2
A cautionary note should be sounded here that this isn't just about a Chinese business securing an import pipeline, but is also a way for that business to export the environmental costs and pollution of the traditionally very dirty process of paper manufacture. Come back in six months and tell me the state of the river that mill sits on.
826
@MC Unfortunately, Trump has lifted many regulations that protect river water. He is the person to question if the health of the river suffers.
221
@MC A factory in China and a factory in the US face very different environmental regulations. I'd still guess that a pound of paper manufactured here is "cleaner" than what would've been made in China. It's usually US companies running to China for cheaper labor and lax environmental standards.
37
@MC Anecdotally, Nova Scotia's only paper mill, Northern Pulp, is shutting down in a couple weeks because it refused to comply with environmental legislation written to protect our lands and water. They had been asked to clean up their pollution for 25 years, including five years from the time the legislation was passed, but the company clearly expected the provincial government to give them another pass. Instead, the province put its foot down and the company immediately announced the mill's closing and the loss of almost 3,000 jobs in the forestry sector. The company that owns Northern Pulp is Paper Excellence, an Indonesian company controlled by Jackson Widjaja, one of that country's richest men.
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So where are the corporate inheritors of Trump's famous tax cuts that was supposed to help create millions and millions of American jobs and reopen all these dead factories? Nowhere in sight. In the meantime, Chinese outfits, who had not received this financial largesse, have stepped up to the plate. It's ironic the Trump voters in that area who supported his trade policies against China are getting a generous helping hand from those very same folks.
1155
@panzerchrist What's good for the goose is good for the gander:The US corporate tax rate is now lower than China's which can be equally attractive to US and non-US multinationals. So for example, by locating in Maine( vs China), this Chinese multinational has improved its profitability.
8
@pete
They came to Maine because that is where the "natural resources" are. The same reason we and northern Europeans exploited third world countries for centuries. Over here in New Hampshire, tree farms are one of our major industries!
42
@panzerchrist : Salient point. Unfortunately, it will not change their outlook one iota.
15
Odd that there is no mention of the vibrant Native American community in Old Town with a long connection to the mill. I think that the Buddhist monks would have been interested in consulting on spiritual issues for that place... if anyone had thought of it.
20
@William F Dowling
I had the same thought.....missed opportunity by the Times to mention such an important aspect of this community. Instead they decided to focus solely on the Trump voters who also share this town.
1
Beautiful story, thank you Ellen Barry et al. Some of the comments are good and thought provoking too.
"Cathy Cashman, now 64, had started there when she was 22. The mill’s history was her history."
I hope that the honorable CEO, the ChairLady, will offer Ms Ellen Barry a small part-time job, related to American-Chinese relations and good feng shui.
David Lindsay is the author of “The Tay Son Rebellion” on 18th century Vietnam, and blogs at InconvenientNews.net.
Here is China putting the explanation point to its ascendancy in the face of Republicans' dissolution of the US economy.
Never mind that extractive industries are the mainstay of third world nations exploited by developed nations.
The US financial sector is looking for double digit ROI—that only Big Oil can provide—and happily ignores investing in projects with the potential of single digit ROI.
Republicans and Conservatives nod their heads in ascent of "free market capitalism" never mind that it is the government's market intervention that created the opportunity for foreign capital.
Never mind the creation of green house gases that will kill what Maine has a lot of—trees—faster than they can grow back are not being mitigated.
11
The mill has been open officially since August 2019; I'm surprised there are no interviews with any employees (besides the manager). Maybe it's the "Chairlady" and her iron fist, so strict that her family members obey her "unconditionally." And I assume her employees must do the same.
I also note that the town's main street was "desolate" at the holidays. That is an indicator that all may not be well.
17
Supposed the GOP had decided that instead (hahahaha!) of championing tax cuts for the rich, valued at $2.3 trillion, they were going to designate that sum for grants to towns and cities so they could invest in projects like this that would restore some manufacturing jobs.
Of course, that would reek of socialism, so no go.
Better to let someone from a *Communist* nation, with so many values antithetical to American ones, buy the plant.
75
@JJ — Exactly. The U.S. would be far better off to invest in homegrown economic ventures, perhaps worker-owned.
3
There are so many little snippets of thoughts rolling around in my head after reading this article.
First, as an aging guy who lived most of his life in the Cold War and seeing Chairman Mao ruling China, I still have a hard time comprehending the phrase, "Chinese billionaire."
Second, as an American History person who recognizes that much of 19th and 20th Century labor history revolved around the conflict of management accusing Big Labor of being Socialists or Communists, I get a kick out of the "Chinese billionaires" being largely anti-union.
Third, how come a Chinese billionaire can become a billionaire in the recycling business and buy a paper plant in Maine to further her business, and American business largely turns their back on recycling and lamented the "National Sword" policy that limited their ability to offload waste paper to China? Why doesn't American business go whole hog into reclaiming waste products and recycling stuff into new stuff?
Finally, the undercurrent discussion of greed and self interest flows throughout this experience in Old Town, Maine. Local greed wants the jobs in spite of awareness of exploitation. The "Chairlady" wants pulp at a better price. The whole community hopes this investment will make the town more prosperous. I understand all of this, but both the residents of Old Town and Nine Dragons are taking risks that can turn on many economic factors. What does it take to change self-interest into something larger and longer?
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@Steve Feldmann I don't think it is fair to call the people in Old Town "local greed" since they are struggling for their livelihood even as I have lots of sympathy to the views expressed in the comment.
"What does it take to change self-interest into something larger and longer?" The answer is simple - first provide them with some degree of economic and financial security. It is difficult to think "something larger and longer" when your stomach is empty.
Sounds like a repeat of Netflix American Factory. everybody is thrilled now but wait until they have to work hard, nights and weekends without union pampering.
It seemed Chinese workers have a different culture : job and food on the table came before family time and BBQs
10
@Sydney Kaye, I don't espouse laziness, but are you suggesting that we should encourage people to spend their entire functioning lives in poorly paid, grim labor, to champion "obedience", to make that the locus of their existence on Earth as opposed to having a job that funds and nourishes their personal and family lives? You know who benefits from that sort of system? The owners, the billionaires, and dictators.
Also, I've never met anyone who worked in a factory or a mill (and I've met a few), who I would consider "pampered".
2
What a great and interesting story. I hope they get some mutual cultural shoulder rubbing out of the deal. Wishing you Mainers all the best. I forded the Penobscot River during high water in the early summer of 2006, while hiking the AT. It is a beautiful place. Be sure to replant those trees!
3
Watch the documentary “American Factory” for insight on a similar endeavor.
14
@Greg Yup! Excellent documentary available on Netflix and nominated for an Academy Award. Two extremely different work cultures and some of it is harrowing.
4
Just like the Oscar nominated documentary „American factory“
Feels like China does more for the forgotten people of America than the GOP with Trump
7
So a mostly Red state has to turn to China to save an industry while the MAGA people are spending billions building a wall. What a world.
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@ jsbliv - Maine is far from a “mostly red state”.
14
@Jsbliv Maine split its 2016 electoral votes: 1 for Trump and 3 for Clinton.
13
Maine is not a red state. GOP Gov. LePage never won a majority of the vote. The governor and both houses are now Democratic. First district is reliably blue and the second district just went back to the Dems. Maine likes to think of itself as independent. Maybe purple.
23
There may be a reason why there have been no US bids, and it would not be the first time that foreign buyers get left holding an over priced piece of real estate: https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/31/business/japanese-buy-new-york-cachet-with-deal-for-rockefeller-center.html Foreign billionaires can get over-extended too.
2
Good for the town of Old Town and the NDP. It appears everyone wins with breath drawn back into the Mill. Hopefully neither (ownership or employees) become greedy that would require a third party (union) to be present. Multiple owners and heartaches have been endured by the citizens of Old Town and surrounding areas for 130 years. Prayers that todays grandchildren will still be able to call Old Town "home" in 100 years.
2
So, a Chinese investor saves a Maine town, and it's grateful residents learn an important lesson on the importance of the global economy and global investments.
Now watch as liberals attack the town and the investor for, you know, having an industry that kills trees and releases greenhouse gases. And the conservatives for allowing Chinese investors to own a piece of America that they themselves neglected before reading about it just now.
16
@UC Graduate Trees - sustainably managed - are just as harvestable a product as wheat or potatoes. So liberals have no issue with tree farms which are replanted and culled every few years whether it's for timber or pulp. GHG: it's relatively to simple reduce their emission from a pulp plant. And I know that Maine isn't the first place you think of when it comes to solar power but I think you can bet that the Chinese owners will find that both solar and aeolian derived power will make a difference to their bottom lines. It would help if this president kept some regulations in place to promote this.
8
Congratulations to Maine and their willingness to think out of the box. In the short term, its a win for the desperate, rural town getting no help 3 years into MAGA. The new owners are probably smart enough to plant some more trees and to respect our laws. In the long term, its up to the two parties to make is sustainable. Welcome to New England Ms. Chairlady and wishing everybody involved all the best.
5
@Steve did they really think outside the box? If martians had landed with the same deal any struggling town would have signed on. What's a head shake is that no American had thought about selling wood fiber to China--maybe I'm missing something, but that would have been the "out of the box" move for me.
1
The citizens of Old Town would have done well to have informed themselves about how the Chinese actually behave when they set up extractive businesses in foreign countries, but now it is too late. For all the promises of jobs for the locals, they will soon find out that the Chinese import their fellow Chinese for the top jobs and the locals are left with poorly paying menial work. Also, combine their history of a total lack of concern for the environment with the Trump administration’s trashing of environmental protection laws and you have the perfect recipe for dangerously polluted land, air and water in and around Maine. Is it really worth it for a few temporary menial jobs?
16
@Renee Margolin There are laws. Well there use to be strict environmental laws but then came the Trump.
6
Maine has been on the prowl for Chinese investment for a while. There was a big push to make Lewiston-Auburn a Chinese destination for medical tourism (a little surgery followed by a jaunt to the coast for lobster rolls?): https://www.magazine.medicaltourism.com/article/opening-doors-to-china-medical-tourism-offers-tools-for-trade or http://www.cqrcengage.com/aca/app/document/8773047?0 or https://www.mainebiz.biz/article/auburn-medical-tourism-stalls-for-lack-of-investors.
5
whatever you feel about china, small town usa etc.....this was a great read. ty ellen
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If the pulp is a renewable resource, and no one in the U.S. wants it, why not sell it?
It beats the Chinese buying up all the single family homes and turning us all into renters, doesn't it?
Because that's what they are doing in California.
13
Clearing our forests and sending the lumber to Japan and China is obscene. Will 130 jobs change the economy of a state of 1.3 million? This is how many of the Caribbean Islands lost their forests and their economies.
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@Emer Itus Do you feel that sending wheat, corn, and soybeans to China is obscene? Are you aware that softwood trees grow rapidly and are typically replanted?
And that >95% of the redwoods in the american West were cut down by US companies by 1980?
2
Essentially China is a communist nation that exploits it's people and cares nothing about human rights or environmental concerns.
I'm not up for playing nice with China.
Witness their recent actions in Hong Kong. Tiananmen Square.
No thank you.
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@American2020 we need to differentiate between the Chinese state and a Chinese woman. Let's not forget that the students in Tienanmen Square were Chinese as well.
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@ matt harding Differentiate between the Chinese state and this Chinese billionaire? What? Who do you think makes up the Chinese state? People of every size shape gender and economic class.
Looking for the logic in your reply but not seeing it.
I try in all my purchases to reduce Chinese products in my home.
Hoping to be less of a hypocrite in the future because China has already won the trade war in my opinion.
2
@American2020 China is not a communist country, it only uses that label as propaganda, just as the US is not a democracy, but only uses that label as propaganda. Both countries are semi-feudal oligarchies, like most of the world's countries.
11
Remember the movie “American Factory”? A similar tale is told and it didn’t end up working for the people or the environment. This is what is called a “no win” situation.
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@Charlene Your reference to "American Factory" is the perfect response to this story. Perhaps the film should be a required screening event in all towns contemplating opening their doors to the investment of Chinese businesses.
Easy to find on Netflix.
6
Fascinating article. Economic, social, and environmental impacts aside, didn’t realize this was happening. News!
2
This globalization working it way around full circle. Consultants from the financial world, encouraged weak executive management to outsource production and infused a short term worldview. This left skilled workers and facilities abandoned while executive management and financial capitalists reaped rewards. We taught the Asians to be productive capitalists, we trained and financed them. Productive capitalists are opportunistic and the Asians are aware of the huge waste of resources unclaimed in America after the financial capitalists ravage the industrial landscape. American executives will be the next group to find themselves redundant.
39
Stunning that the reporter and her her editors didn't insist she visit the nearby ND factory in Maine and talk to the people in Munford.
I've manufactured all over China. The Chinese manage with an iron fist; totally top down. They accept no opinions, no dissent. Even her family characterizes her style as, "We obey her unconditionally." Wouldn't it be significant here to know how things are going nearby?
In the age of fake news I can't figure out how no one investigated their track record of hiring, firing and benefits when the answers to those significant questions were waiting to be illuminated just down the road.
360
@ijarvis Sadly I think the article almost speaks for itself in that regard--the town is desperate for jobs and has no bargaining power at all. If they want the working mill and the jobs, they have to accept them on whatever terms are imposed--and what are the chances there will be beneficence?
24
@Junewell Agree, but information is power. It's a lot easier to accept what you get if you know it's coming. It's easier too, to leverage some power in the situation if papers like the NYT bring that information to the public eye.
7
@ijarvis Thoughtful comment. Hopefully, the journalist does a follow-up here. I'd be particularly interested in how the absence of a union has impacted wages and labor conditions at the other facility.
4
I guess no Americans want to manufacture cardboard boxes.
At any rate, boxes should be made from recycled paper, not virgin or near-virgin forests. God knows there are plenty of used Amazon boxes clogging the sidewalks on recycling days just here in New York City alone.
And we do know that paper mills stink up an area for miles around, right? That would still be okay if the river stayed clean, the raw material was recycled boxes, and people could earn a living from it.
100
@B.
Savannah, Georgia has had a kraft paper mill on the river since I was a child and I turn 80 later this month. People learn to live with it. And if you just think of it as the same smell of a wet paper bag it isn't so awful. Biggest problem is the sulfur fumes the mill produces which tarnishes anything silver. When we were living on Hilton Head I finally sold all the silver I had inherited and bought plants for my garden instead!
2
Well there have been enough American “patriots” who have clear cut our forests for an industry and then bailed when they bled the environment dry, why not have the Chinese do it now?
38
Somebody check this plant's air permit, please! My guess is that the Maine air quality division is looking the other way when it comes to air quality compliance at this plant, even though it certainly sounds like the owner can afford to make the plant's emissions of criteria polluants safe for those living around the plant.
37
@Maureen. Let's hope she will. Maybe we will learn something from her? I hope for decency and a respect for the environment.
1
How much real estate do Americans OWN in China?
If you think Old Town is getting all the jobs, think again. Chinese bring workers, too.
11
So was EB5 the vehicle of choice for this investment?
I live down the street from Old Town in Orono. 130 jobs isn't going to change their fortunes.
77
@Nicholas Agreed
3
@Nicholas Agree. And the precedent for fewer and fewer jobs for more and more reap is really also concerning. Maine workers have already taken enough similar knocks.
1
The article refers to conversion from processing hardwood to softwood. That sounds like harvesting of fast growing trees from tree farms and if Maine has decent environmental pollution laws maybe all will be well. Maybe some MAGA U.S. billionaire who just got a big, fat tax cut will see their way to opening a plant that will use Zhang Yin's pulp and make it into cardboard instead of sending it back to China. Not holding my breath, so far it looks like in order to be a billionaire paying a living wage is not part of the business model, even with huge tax cuts. Maybe in Old Town, Maine 12.00/hr is a living wage a place where 1200 people lined up for 130 nonunion factory jobs.... Did I miss where this lengthy article mentioned what these jobs will pay? This is another glimpse into our future from Amazon distribution centers to pulp factories in Maine where folks compete for $12/hr jobs that offer work schedules that regularly change in order to make it difficult for workers to work a second job or further their education while working. These are jobs that don't allow for savings, sending kids to college or putting away for retirement. And yet Old Town is thrilled and hoping these good times last. Sad day when folks must scramble for the trail of crumbs dropped from the deep pockets of oligarchs.
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@Gini Brown I don’t see how Amazon is particularly relevant to your assessment of the nonunion paper mill jobs. The people in that town are happy to get any kind of job for that hourly rate. This Chinese owned paper mill is not doing anything different than a multitude of US jobs do. Home Depot is notorious for making decisions on a daily basis based on how good their sales are going. I worked part time. It was not uncommon to be sent home after being there for an hour because it was a slow day. Forget about planning anything or trying to have a second job. You had to be there when they said you had to be there. They have no problem firing you if you didn’t show up. This is the new reality for working in America.
7
@Gini Brown The Trump Administration are working as hard as they can to remove pollution controls - so good luck there.
"Burn, baby! Burn." is their motto.
4
See US House and Senate trying to pick upmTrumps crumbs-ie favor.
"The most startling thing about Ms. Zhang was her promise that Nine Dragons would operate the mill for 100 years"
That statement alone should raise a red flag. Nobody can promise that anything will continue for the next 100 years. The pulp and paper industry in Maine have had many ups and downs over the decades. When Nine Dragons finds a cheaper supply of pulp elsewhere, you can bet that mill in Maine will close before the year 2120.
17
I recommend the the Oscar nominated documentary American Factory. It’s about a similar situation—a Chinese company (in that case auto glass) coming into a defunct US factory—this one in the Midwest. In light of that case, I am very curious to see what happens here. In American Factory the culture clash between Chinese employers who expected pre-union work commitment and and American workers who were grateful for jobs but wanted decent pay and some time off became overwhelming. The Chinese owner considered the American workers slow, clumsy and lazy. Eventually after a failed attempt at union organizing they got rid of most of the workers and automated the factory.
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@Nor Cal Curly. Can see all the potential harm in this, but wonder where are those Americans who would save their own?
2
As others have voiced, not clear whether virgin trees being pulped or recycling ops going on here. Sounds like virgin trees however. Where do these come from? Managed farms or intact forests? Who decides the extent of the tree removal? Per Annie Proulx's book - Barkskins - the forest is not inexhaustable....
Excellent article except for these ambiguities. Nice to see the owner in it for the long haul...except she is no longer young. Who takes over after her?
7
I would appreciate the effort by ND Dragons to help this town and surrounding areas.
If you are in desperate need of help and no one is stepping in, what can you do? In the meantime, livelihood suffers. If someone is willing to try in an honest way with money and determination as the story described, why not give her a chance?
For one thing, Chinese companies do not have a short term mentality that puts profits first and people second. ND Dragons will stay in the course for the long haul.
3
What's the difference between shipping pulp to another part of the country or shipping it to China? Our country has been reducing our demand for paper for decades, China is still increasing theirs, it makes perfect sense for this factory to retarget its customer base. Why does everyone commenting on this article think that having Chinese ownership over this factory is significantly worse than it operating under any other type of ownership? The same environmental concerns persist regardless of the nationality of the owner, unless you believe that this factory shouldn't exist in the first place.
16
@CY Chines ownership may not be significantly worse, but it will be different.
Let's examine your thesis statement, "What's the difference between shipping pulp to another part of the country or shipping it to China?"
If this were an actual choice, why didn't the previous owners take the opportunity. Tariffs imposed by China? Government restrictions (US or CH)? Cost of shipping making the sales unprofitable?
Nine Dragons did this to make money. Make their supply chain more reliable. And, to take advantage of an opportunity lost by American owners.
Jobs will be minimum wage, non-union, few to no benefits. The Chines will manage and run the company. Eventually, the number of workers will be pushed down to a minimum. This is a factory/process that can be easily mechanized and run by a handful of supervisors staring at screens all day in a control room.
5
We just don’t realize how little “business” acumen, basics, flexibility, opportunity awareness, and finance is taught in this country (including and especially rural Maine). As long as education is merely given lip service in the US, this will be “par”.
12
.001% of the U.S. defense budget could have financed this plant's industrialization. Instead, a capitalist response to a world market required Chinese capital.
18
My thoughts go immediately to the environmental risks to the beautiful Penobscot River and Bay and to the workers. What effluents are going to spew forth from this Chinese factory? Will forests be clear-cut? Non-union means no protection for workers who are desperate enough to accept lower salary and minimal benefits.
35
Same as it ever was...a working class hero is a hard thing to be.
1
American Factory, a fascinating movie, tells a similar story. Sadly, many in “Trump” country may not have seen it as it’s produced by the Obamas (on Netflix). The disconnect between individualist and collective thinking is remarkable. As is the “abhorrence” of laziness which appears to include taking weekends off and spending time with family. It will be interesting to see if the parallels continue.
17
@Rock On
As much as I loved the Obamas during his administration, his deal with Netflix is exactly why we’re three years into the destruction of our democracy.
Liberals and progressives make great TV and film but do zero actual work in making the structural and political changes needed to create the worlds these media champion. We need less media and far more direct action on the ground to actually make real change.
4
@left coast finch Most of what you say about Netflix is true, but the Obama's should be applauded for producing that film. I hope it wins an Academy Award. It should be required viewing for all Americans.
2
Tax cuts for the immensely wealthy are lauded as encouraging investment in the American economy, with jobs, and so on. But it is China who pours in the money – is anybody looking as China buys up America and digs the ground under the feet of the scions whose tax cuts are supposed to do just what the Chinese are doing? This is more than investment, it is Chinese expansion, if not take over. Here in Brittany, which is a rural but not a bovine country, a defunct milk processing factory was bought – there is very little local milk, and how could this area provide for even a small part of one billion 400 million people? The milk is imported from eastern Europe, where there are surely cheaper factories. In a totalitarian country with centralized management, these operations are part of national policy.
5
@zazanne
So the Chinese bought an abandoned and useless milk processing plant for what? You think they are going to turn the storage tank into giant silos for their missiles? Radioactive milk cows with laser on their head?
Apparently you don’t know what “see potential” means. You think business only go into business when everything is already established.
2
I wish someone would keep a running track or the US land and industries/companies China/Chinese companies/Chinese nationals are buying up as various companies or sectors of the US economy suffer due to trade tariffs. China’s is buying up the land all over the world from farm land in France to Africa and South America. One belt one road... It all adds up.
11
As someone that lives in Old Town, there is a lot of false information in this article. First of all, nothing about the mill coming back has anything to do with Trump. Old Town is NOT rural and not in Northern Maine "Trump country" like the article says. Creating 130 jobs is not going to turn much around. Everyone in a 10 mile radius of this mill has to endure the horrid stench everytime they step outside for fresh air. People were relieved when it closed in 2015. They dump their waste into the Penobscot river and there is now a constant flow of dump trucks through Orono between the interstate and the mill. I'd rather have paper produced in China so they can deal with the pollution. Now it's happening right in our backyard.
565
It’s what is called a ‘Greek gift’, like the Trojan horse. At first glance it appears to be a good thing, but look further - it’s not. When the money goes to China and we are left with the environmental mess.
37
@Jeff Couldn't agree more. This article had a clear narrative and and I'm surprised at how many key details were missed.
26
@Jeff I didn't get the sense that this article links the mill coming back to Trump. I think it underlined the irony of it all, but the article clearly states that the most likely impetus was when China stopped the import of American recycling into its country.
Thanks for mentioning the stench. I was wondering about that as I was reading the article. My father grew up in a paper mill town, and my most vivid memory of visiting my grandparents as a kid is the smell. Best of luck with it all.
14
Everyone involved, and anyone thinking this is good & hopeful, should watch the terrific documentary American Factory, about a very similar situation. It did not end well. Promises were not kept.
Chinese values are not American values. I would not begin any process without a union or the workers will eventually be treated very poorly. And watch out for toxic pollution too, keep a close eye.
19
Beware of false saviors
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There are key details missing from this story that leave me scratching my head. My wife spent many years working for one of America’s largest paper companies- International Paper Co. For decades, very industry savvy people at IPCO were forever working to rejigger paper plants to increase efficiencies and to produce new paper products that were both readily marketable and would fetch prices high enough to support operations. Plants underwent enormously expensive changes in order to turn out: laminates, specially coated papers, Kraft style paper, asceptic container board, etc. Each new product line soon ran its course. Market changes are inevitable. Overseas competition was especially difficult with overseas plants being run on low wage labor. IPCO couldn’t compete despite being the largest owner of forest land in America.
Here are a few questions I have about the Chinese business model for the Old Town plant. Why have the Chinese chosen to produce paper pulp in the US and not in a much lower cost third-world location? The article leaves us to think that the Chinese can produce a cost competitive paper product using pulp made using US labor and overseas shipping costs. How are costs involved in this convoluted supply chain even remotely feasible? How do global currency markets effect this type of multi-country operation for such a low value commodity?
I’m glad that the folks in Old Town have found work at their old plant, but they should be suspicious about its future.
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@Vernon Rail i've worked on a deal in this space once, it appears ND Paper may want to access a higher grade of dissolving wood pulp to blend in with its cheaper domestic product.
The highest grades of dissolving wood pulp can only be produced from "softwood" trees - commonly cedar, fir, juniper, spruce, etc.
The largest reserves of these trees are found in the Northern United States or Northern Europe - which may help explain ND Paper's presence in Maine
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@Vernon Rail The shipping costs are minimal, as it is shipped to China on what would have been nearly empty vessels that had brought containers of Chinese exports to the US.
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@Vernon Rail
The article says China couldn't import recycled board because of the ongoing US-China trade war
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I wish the people of Old Town well. I have friends in Maine and I love the state and its people. Ironic that, after Trump’s tax cuts to the wealthy, no American who benefited from those tax cuts stepped up, and instead, it was China. And doubly ironic that this largely Trump-supporting area is now dependent on a Chinese company.
With Trump’s rollback on environmental regulations, I am curious about its effects on the Penobscot River.
But the biggest takeaway I have upon reading this article is the same feeling I get during this era of Trump: Every news story reads like satire.
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@Wendy Agreed... it was kind of amusing that Mr. King, a Trump supporter, said, “I feel a little hypocritical at times for being excited that they’re here." I should think this would be a common feeling, not worth mentioning, among Trump supporters at this point.
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@Keith G. Senator King is not a Trump supporter to my knowledge. He is a moderate Independent, neither Republican nor Democrat.
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@Alex Keith G. is talking about the Mr. King mentioned in the article, a real estate developer, not Sen. Angus King, who, of course, is not a MAGA guy. ;-)
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A cut tree provides jobs to the feller-buncher operators, the truck drivers, and the people at the mill. The landowner makes some money every 30 years.
The State of Maine ensures that buffer strips along streams are not cut, that some trees are left along roadsides to protect aesthetics, and that lands are properly replanted.
The union can come back if the new owners do not maintain a safe work environment, pay fairly, and otherwise build the facility team.
Its all about jobs.
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@Professor
Hate to say this, but this substantially oversimplifies the situation. I respect your academic views, but after spending over 35 years in management and finance, a touch of on the ground experience would show this will be difficult to attain for the long pull. I would guess the ROI on this venture is 10 years or less - the Chinese are not fools anymore than their American counterparts.
Hope this company does well
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@Dale Stiffler. As well as Old Town and anywhere else this occurs.
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Liverpool, Nova Scotia, has a defunct paper mill that could use some feng shui....
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@Kathleen Craig The Liverpool mill has been re-purposed as a legal and medical marijuana grow op (amongst other new businesses there). No noise, no air or river pollution, no trees needed, and it even uses the waste from farmed salmon as fertilizer.
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I'm admittedly a little confused. Is this company logging trees or repurposing recycled paper? It just wasn't clear to me in the article.
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@Erika Logging. They want virgin pulp, something in short supply in China due to massive overextraction.
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@Farfel Resource extraction companies pack up and move once they have depleted a resource and always leave a mess. It is easier and cheaper than having a long term sustainable commitment to the region, its people and environment.
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@Erika
From my reading, they are logging trees, but only because they can no longer import our recycling waste. So because of tariffs, our recycling is too expensive and instead they will cut the softwood forests and import the pulp to China to make cardboard. A sad state of affairs.
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