The choice is overwhelming on the China shelf of any bookshop – everything from macroeconomic tomes to travel guides. Why did you pick ‘life stories’ as your theme?

One of the real challenges for foreigners trying to think about China, and have it make sense to them, is to really get to think of it as a country populated by individuals. There’s a strong tendency in so much of the writing about China to deal in broad generalisations, in which we lose the diversity of the population. So focusing on biography, or life stories, seemed to be a good way to go against the grain ….

Could you imagine someone writing a flesh-and-blood biography of Hu Jintao, or Xi Jinping, or any other more current Chinese leader?

Not one that would make for compelling reading! Though I recently wrote a piece for Time magazine about how when Deng Xiaoping took power after Mao, he seemed in comparison a more down-to-earth, unexciting and pragmatic character – but now, in comparison to Hu Jintao, Deng seems positively charismatic. So we’ve had a kind of steady progression away from larger-than-life Chinese leaders.

Previously featured on China Digital Times are selections from Victor Shih on China’s economy, Evan Osnos on a broad range of China-related reading, Richard Baum on obstacles to reform in China and Xinran on understanding China. Other instalments available in the archives cover popular protest in China, China’s place in the global economy, Uyghur nationalism, the country’s environmental crisis and more.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: books, Deng Xiaoping, factory workers, Hu Jintao, Mao Zedong, qing dynasty, Xi Jinping
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Collaborate with industry groups and NGOs in China to address key issues— such as working hours, underage labor, and employee well-being—through root cause analysis, more aggressive audits, stronger requirements for corrective and preventive actions, and expanded supplier training and assistance.

Elsewhere, the report mentions existing arrangements with NGOs Verité and the Fair Labor Association, and with independent experts in dealing with the Foxconn suicides. It remains to be seen how far greater involvement of outsiders in Apple’s auditing will address concerns about lack of independent verification.

The report covers several China-related issues in some detail: n-hexane poisoning at Wintek, suicides at Foxconn, and the employment of underage workers by a number of suppliers. On underage labour:

To address this difficult scenario, we intensified our search for underage labor in 2010, interviewing more workers and further scrutinizing recruiting practices, employment records, and worker IDs, especially where third-party labor agencies and schools were involved. Our audits of 127 facilities revealed ten Chinese factories that had hired workers under the age of 16 years, the minimum age for employment in China ….

Of the ten facilities with underage labor violations, we found one that had hired a much larger number of underage workers—a total of 42. In addition, we determined that management had chosen to overlook the issue and was not committed to addressing the problem. Based on the poor likelihood of improvement, we terminated business with the facility. During our investigation, we also discovered that the vocational school involved in hiring the underage workers had falsified student IDs and threatened retaliation against students who revealed their ages during our audits. We reported the school to appropriate authorities in the Chinese government.

On the infamous string of suicides at Foxconn:

Like many of our customers and others around the world, we were disturbed and deeply saddened to learn that factory workers were taking their own lives at the Shenzhen facility of Foxconn.

Recognizing that we would need additional expertise to help prevent further tragedies, we launched an international search for the most knowledgeable suicide prevention specialists—particularly those with experience in China— and asked them to advise Apple and Foxconn.

Apple … commissioned an independent review by a broader team of suicide prevention experts. This team was asked to conduct a deeper investigation into the suicides, evaluate Foxconn’s response, and recommend strategies for supporting workers’ mental health in the future.

And on the Wintek case:

In 2010, we learned that 137 workers at the Suzhou facility of Wintek, one of Apple’s suppliers, had suffered adverse health effects following exposure to n-hexane, a chemical in cleaning agents used in some manufacturing processes. We discovered that the factory had reconfigured operations without also changing their ventilation system. Apple considered this series of incidents to be a core violation for worker endangerment.

We required Wintek to stop using n-hexane and to provide evidence that they had removed the chemical from their production lines. In addition, Apple required them to fix their ventilation system. Since these changes, no new workers have suffered difficulties from chemical exposure.

The apparent frankness of the report stands in contrast with Apple’s evasive response when the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs raised the Wintek case with them last year. The company refused to confirm or deny any business relationship with Lianjian (a Wintek subsidiary), asking that the NGO produce evidence that such a relationship existed.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Apple, child labor, factory workers, Foxconn, working conditions
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Apple trumpets its environmental policy, and claims to take extensive measures to monitor and regulate working conditions at suppliers’ plants. Last year, its Supplier Responsibility Progress Report (PDF) revealed that some had been found to have employed underaged workers. Because of the carefully preserved opacity of the company’s supply chain, however, its own audits cannot be subjected to independent verification. From The Guardian:

“This attitude means it is impossible to have any public supervision over their supply chain. Without that how can we trust them?” said Ma Jun of the Institute for Public and Environmental Affairs. “When environmental violations become public knowledge, they should not use commercial confidentiality as an excuse for silence. This is different from other leading brands.”

Hewlett Packard, British Telecom, Samsung, Sony, Siemens and Alcatel were credited as being the most responsive to third-party inquiries about alleged environmental violations.

“Apple can say it is completely ‘green’ because it is a brand with no factory, but if it doesn’t manage its supply chain, these are just empty words,” said Ma Jun …. “Far from being the best on planet, it is bottom among 29 IT brands. Apple should be a leader. If it can move on this, it can change the whole industry.”

The hope that pressure exerted on Apple will eventually affect the tech industry as a whole echoes that of Greenpeace’s 2007 campaign for A Greener Apple:

It’s not about bruising Apple’s image, Apple should be an environmental leader. We want Apple to be at the forefront of green technology, and to clearly show other companies how to do it the right way.

Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs later announced the phasing out of toxic chemicals and a more aggressive approach to recycling, a shift still hailed as a success story on the front page of Greenpeace’s website.

At present, legal responsibility for injury or sickness brought about by poor working conditions is limited to the suppliers themselves, but this may soon change. From Global Times:

Dong Baohua, a Shanghai-based labor lawyer, told the Global Times that there is no regulation in Chinese labor laws that mandates that contractors must take joint liability for compensating workers who suffer from occupational diseases in their supply chain if the suppliers and contractors are independent and legal employers.

“These workers could seek help from global organizations that monitor working conditions, but the process is lengthy and costly,” he said.

What might give the suffering workers a slice of hope is that amendments to the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Occupational Diseases will be taken into consideration by national legislators this year.

That may, to some extent, help solve problems that arise when diagnosing occupational injuries.

Apple’s secrecy has come under scrutiny before, when a Foxconn employee killed himself after suffering alleged mistreatment by security guards when an iPhone prototype in his care went missing.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Apple, factory workers, greenpeace, Ma Jun, working conditions
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This dorm is one of the older ones on campus, built near the beginning. It's a men's dorm—women have separate facilities—and populated mostly by entry-level workers. (GIZMODO + WIRED)

A dorm room. Eight workers sleep in four bunk beds in a room about the size of a two-car garage. (GIZMODO + WIRED)

An on-campus university provides degrees that are recognized outside of Foxconn. Employees can pay for the schooling themselves or earn scholarships based on their performance. (GIZMODO + WIRED)

Update, November 5: According to Bloomberg, a worker at the Shenzhen Foxconn factory was found dead outside of his dormitory:

Foxconn Technology Group, the world’s largest contract maker of electronics, said a worker was found dead outside a company dormitory earlier today, the first reported death at the manufacturer since 100,000 employees staged a “Treasure your life” rally in August.

The body of the 23-year old male worker was found around 1:20 a.m. at Foxconn’s Guanlan campus in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, the company said in an e-mailed statement sent through its public relations agency Burson-Marsteller. Louis Woo, a spokesman for Foxconn, said the cause of death hasn’t been determined.

© Paulina Hartono for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: factory workers, Foxconn, labor, Shenzhen
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The migrants’ homecoming is flooding villages where wrinkled grandparents and ruddy-faced schoolchildren are the only residents for most of the year. The masses of unemployed and underemployed pose a major challenge for the Chinese government, which must cope with sinking economic growth while calming vast swaths of countryside that have grown used to large transfers of money from migrants working in factories and construction jobs in urban areas.

Migrant workers have an average annual income of about 8,000 yuan ($1,170), while farmers make about 4,800 ($700), said Zhang Jianping, an economist at Minzu University of China. Research from the People’s Bank of China says migrant workers contribute 65 percent of their rural family’s income.

© Japhet Weeks for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: factory closures, factory workers, financial crisis 2008-2009, migrant workers
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Like tens of millions of young Chinese before her, Yu Juan left China’s hinterland for factory work near the coast four years ago with the dream of getting rich.

An acquaintance from her hometown of Dazhou in Sichuan province told her about an exporter in Dongguan, an hour-and-a-half north of Hong Kong, that was hiring.

The Hejun Toy Factory was large, Hong Kong-owned and paid well and on time. It also had an imprimatur that Yu and others working there thought was a virtual guarantee of job security: a stock code.

See an old CDT post on the impact on exporters and suggested actions to minimise losses.

Please also read: 1,500 jobless as another China factory shuts: Report on the India Times:

Hong Kong-listed appliance maker shut its southern China factory on Monday, state media reported, making it the latest victim of the world economic slowdown’s impact on Chinese manufacturing.

The closure of Bailingda Industrial Co.’s electrical appliance factory in the export hub of Shenzhen has left 1,500 employees jobless, Xinhua news agency reported. It follows the failure on Friday of another Hong Kong-listed firm, toymaker Smart Union, which shut its factory in the nearby city of Dongguan in Guangdong province, throwing about 7,000 out of work.

The situation has highlighted the growing risk of instability in China’s coastal manufacturing hubs as factories face financial difficulties leading to large-scale layoffs. Xinhua said more than 1,000 of the laid-off Bailingda employees had gathered outside the factory on Sunday, demanding government intervention to secure unpaid wages. The report made no mention of any disturbances.

© Priscilla Jiao for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: exporters, factory workers, financial crisis 2008-2009
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I remember one particularly bad factory in China. It produced outdoor tables, parasols, and gazebos, and the place was a mess. Work floors were so crowded with production materials that I could barely make my way from one end to the other. In one area, where metals were being chemically treated, workers squatted at the edge of steaming pools as if contemplating a sudden, final swim. The dormitories were filthy: the hallways were strewn with garbage—orange peels, tea leaves—and the only way for anyone to bathe was to fill a bucket with cold water. In a country where workers normally suppress their complaints for fear of getting fired, employees at this factory couldn’t resist telling us the truth. “We work so hard for so little pay,” said one middle-aged woman with undisguised anger. We could only guess how hard—the place kept no time cards. Painted in large characters on the factory walls was a slogan: “If you don’t work hard today, look hard for work tomorrow.” Inspirational, in a way.

I was there because, six years ago, I had a job at a Los Angeles firm that specialized in the field of “compliance consulting,” or “corporate social responsibility monitoring.” It’s a service that emerged in the mid-1990s after the press started to report on bad factories around the world and companies grew concerned about protecting their reputations. With an increase of protectionist sentiment in the United States, companies that relied on cheap labor abroad were feeling vulnerable to negative publicity. They still are. (See “Disney Taking Heat Over China” in the Los Angeles Times this March.)

Towards the end of the article Frank suggests some tips for consumers interested in finding out whether or not a given company — like Nike or Walmart — is conscientious of its factory workers:

…ordinary consumers searching on company Web sites—Walmart.com, Nike.com, etc.—can find out almost everything they need to know just sitting at their desks. For instance, just now I learned from Wal-Mart’s latest report on sourcing that only 26 percent of its audits are unannounced. By contrast, of the inspections Target conducts, 100 percent are unannounced. That’s a revealing difference. And companies that do what Nike does—prescreen, build long-term relationships, disclose producers—make a point of emphasizing that fact, and are relatively transparent. Companies that don’t are more guarded. (When in doubt, doubt.)

© Japhet Weeks for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: factory workers, sweatshops
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Selling real estate turned out to be a lot harder than sewing sweaters. As Shenzhen property prices rose – by 30 per cent in 2006 – real-estate agencies opened thousands of branches around the city. In every district, agents stood on corners, squinting in the south China sun, distributing flyers of available properties. Three agencies occupied Luyuan’s block alone, each with its own army of commissioned youth.

Luyuan’s new colleagues didn’t talk much, but she felt sure they would all become friends. They sat in the agency’s tiny office reading the newspaper, waiting for customers and wishing the phone would ring. When it did, the first person to pick it up got the business.

Alternately brutally competitive and boring, the job nonetheless thrilled Luyuan. Work that allowed you to sit and read the paper hardly seemed like work at all. She marvelled at how quickly her life changed. “At the factory, our social circle is limited and we don’t communicate with anyone other than the people we live with,” she said. Life was confined to the narrow, colourless strip between factory and dormitory. Now, her customers came from a mixture of backgrounds and income levels. And her days were no longer measured by the number of sweaters she sewed. “I like the freedom and the lack of restrictions,” she said.

But over the next months, the reality of life outside the relative safety of the factories sank in. Luyuan’s new apartment was across the highway from room 817, down a dark, pungent alley in the red-light district. She shared a dirty common area with the residents of six other rooms. The grease-stained communal kitchen and bathroom with metered tap water disgusted her. The cardboard walls were so thin she could hear everything her neighbours said, every television programme they watched. Her room was dominated by a rickety bunkbed. For this, she paid $39 a month, her entire first month’s salary.

© Japhet Weeks for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Alexandra Harney, factory workers, middle class, Shenzhen
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