By inadvertently “saying the quiet part out loud,” three recent media gaffes have touched off public debate on questions usually left unspoken. For some Chinese social media users, these blunders have provided an opportunity to...
Laura Zhou at South China Morning Post reports that authorities in Hunan have summoned riot police...
After thousands of teachers from Zhaodong, Heilongjiang Province went on strike last month to...
As China’s college enrollment rate continues to increase, short-term employment prospects for graduates look dim compared with those of their migrant worker counterparts, who dominate high-demand low-skill jobs with rising...
The number of migrant workers in China reached 262.6 million in 2012, with 163.4 million working away from home for at least six months. These figures come from a new survey by the National Bureau of Statistics, which also...
As workers’ wages in China increase, manufacturers are turning to countries like Vietnam for lower production costs, according to Kathy Chu at the Wall Street Journal: At Crocs, 65% of its colorful shoes are expected to be...
The National Bureau of Statistics announced Tuesday that average wages for urban Chinese workers in both the private and non-private sectors rose by double digits in 2011, according to The China Daily: The data was based on a...
At China Real Time Report, Tom Orlik arms “panda-loving” readers for battle against gloomy forecasters of bursting investment bubbles, real estate collapse, shadow banking catastrophe, dwindling workforces and...
This week’s Economist includes a map of interprovincial migration in China between 1990 and 2005. Central China—particularly Henan, Hunan, Anhui and Sichuan—saw millions leave for the coastal regions, with Zhejiang,...
As Xi Jinping’s U.S. Visit came to an end, concerns remained over various issues in the bilateral relationship, such as the lack of enforcement of property rights. And China’s cheap labor, a mainstay of the U.S....
The Los Angeles Times’ Barbara Demick examines the continuing rise of “mass incidents” as a means to address specific grievances such as pollution and land seizures. These demonstrators have a narrow agenda and...
The Wall Street Journal’s Joseph Sternberg examines the erosion of China’s manufacturing supremacy due to rising transport and labour costs, and possible consequences of this shift: … [The] warning to Beijing...
Caixin, via MarketWatch, reports on the troubles faced by China’s manufacturers as foreign importers are turning elsewhere for cheap labor: Manufacturers may have been especially spooked by a report released May 5 by the...
Long the ubiquitous source of low-priced goods around the world, China is losing its appeal for foreign manufacturers. From the New York Times: Bruce Rockowitz, the chief executive of Li & Fung, the largest trading company...
The Financial Times’ beyondbrics blog suggests that rising wages in China could spell the end of the cheap, plentiful manufactured goods to which Western consumers (or overconsumers) have become accustomed. $11 for a pair...
Foxconn, the manufacturing giant which was the scene of 12 worker suicides this year, has announced it will raise worker wages by two-thirds. From Reuters: News agency Xinhua quoted company spokesman Liu Kun as saying the...
Long the life-blood of China’s economy, it seems cheap labour is becoming increasingly hard to come by. Following an article written earlier last month by Duncan Innes-Ker of the Economist Intelligence Unit, Hong Kong-based...
Foxconn, the behemoth hi-tech manufacturing plant that has been hit by a number of worker suicides this year, is shifting its base of operations from Shenzhen to northern China to follow the cheap labor market. From MarketWatch:...
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