From The Washington Post (link):
Repression pays. Until that reality is acknowledged by American companies operating in China, they will have little influence over social and political change in the Middle Kingdom or even over their own operations there.That holds true for members of Congress who are abruptly chastising China’s Leninist rulers for cheating on trade and currency pegs, and for an ambivalent Bush White House, which will host China’s president next month with a mix of verbal bouquets and velvet brickbats — without ever mentioning the driving force in China’s astonishing 15-year economic rise.
That force is a low-wage, unfair labor system held in place by Communist Party control and military might. Take away that system and replace it with one that has collective bargaining and freely chosen union representatives, and all the rest will change, dramatically and for the better.
