This long article is from Australian newspaper, The Age:
……The brutal attack is the latest in what labour rights groups say is an escalating pattern of corporate violence against China’s 200 million migrant workers, mostly poor farmers and the unemployed who seek work in the booming urban centres.
China’s rapid economic growth has lifted overall living standards, but has caused a growing income gap between the 800 million peasants and more affluent city dwellers, leading to increasing social unrest.
The flood of impoverished rural migrants to China’s rapidly expanding cities is one of the largest mass movements in history.
More than 150 million people moved to China’s cities in the six years between 1999 and 2005. In 1980, 80 per cent of the population lived in the country. A UN report last month said that more than half of China’s population ” now 1.3 billion ” will be living in urban areas within 10 years. [Full Text]
