General Electric is Moving X-Ray Division to China-Truth!

General Electric is Moving X-Ray Division to China-Truth!

Summary of the eRumor:
This is a forwarded email that says General Electric (GE) is moving its 115 year old X-Ray division to China.

The Truth:
The eRumor suggests that General Electric is moving jobs out of the U.S. to China. The company denies that, however, and said that they are expanding to a new presence in China to respond to increased opportunities in the region.

General Electric announced that it is moving its X-Ray Division to Beijing, China to "to accelerate sales in the country's fast-growing health-care market." This, according to a July 26, 2011 article in the Wall Street Journal is "the latest sign of China's growing importance to the giant U.S. conglomerate."

On July 25, 2011 Reuters reported that a GE spokesperson said that the move will not result in any job cuts at home. The news agency said, "Anne LeGrand, vice president and general manager at GE Healthcare Global X-Ray, is relocating to Beijing from Waukesha, Wisconsin, along with several executives, including the chief financial officer and chief marketing officer." Currently, the Wisconsin based X-Ray division oversees 820 employees world wide and has 150 employees in the Badger State.

General Electric has operations world wide and this move marks the company's first facility in China. According to an March 25, 2011 ABC News report, the company did report $14.2 billion in profits in 2010 but paid no taxes because most of of the revenues were generated offshore and the company's financial division, GE Capital, reported major losses in the Wall Street Meltdown.

The X-Ray Division is not 115 years old, as the eRumor alleged, this facility was built in 1972.

updated 8/24/11

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

GE & Jobs

SNOPES says right on the mark. What a disgrace! We need to dump NAFTA/CAFTA and put tariffs on, now FREE, imports. The thousands of runaway mfgrs in China would be screaming to get back into the U.S. market. Our manufacturers would once again be playing on a level field. This will add to our unemployment problem so it's time to boycott GE and all of their Companies including NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC.

General Electric is moving its 115-year-old X-ray division from Waukesha, Wis., to Beijing. In addition to moving the headquarters, the company will invest $2 billion in China and train more than 65 engineers and create six research centers.
This is the same GE that made $5.1 billion in the United States last year, but paid zero taxes - the same company that employs more people overseas than it does in the United States.

So let me get this straight. President Obama appointed GE Chairman Jeff Immelt to head his commission on job creation (job czar). Immelt is supposed to help create jobs. Did the President forgot to tell him in which country he was supposed to be creating those jobs or did he tell him to put them there?