Books
04.09.20
The Myth of Chinese Capitalism
St. Martin’s Press: Dexter Roberts explores the reality behind today’s financially-ascendant China and pulls the curtain back on how the Chinese manufacturing machine is actually powered. He focuses on two places: the village of Binghuacun in Guizhou province, one of China’s poorest regions that sends the highest proportion of its youth away; and Dongguan, China’s most infamous factory town located in Guangdong, home to both the largest number of migrant workers and the country’s biggest manufacturing base.Within these two towns and the people that move between them, Roberts focuses on the story of the Mo family, former farmers-turned-migrant-workers who are struggling to make a living in a fast-changing country that relegates half of its people to second-class status via household registration, land tenure policies, and inequality in education and health care systems.Roberts brings to life the problems migrant workers face today as they attempt to overcome a divisive system that poses a serious challenge to the country’s future development.
Viewpoint
12.21.18
A Look Back at China in 2018
In 2018, the outlook for China regarding its politics, economy, and relationship with the United States darkened considerably. The removal of presidential term limits and Xi Jinping’s interactions with the Trump administration prompted rare...
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02.22.183M and H&M Probe Claim They Used Chinese Prison Labor
CNN
Three big Western companies are investigating allegations that prisoners in China made packaging bearing their brand names.
Conversation
12.13.17
Is Chinese Investment Good for Workers?
China’s Belt and Road Initiative is a $1 trillion plan to deepen economic relations between itself and up to 60 other countries worldwide through large investments in infrastructure, construction, and other projects. Many commentators have...
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07.19.17Chinese Labor Activist Targeted over ‘Ivanka Trump Supplier Probe’
South China Morning Post
Hua Haifeng believes police arrested him and took a special interest in his work after he began investigating factories supplying Trump’s clothing brand
06.06.17
Possible Foreign NGO Law-Related Detentions: What We Know, and What We Don’t
Three labor activists affiliated with the New York-based China Labor Watch (CLW) were detained in China last week. Reports suggest that they were detained for investigating labor practices at factories in Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces. This comes...
Features
07.01.16
The Rockets’ Red Glare
from Slate
The vast majority of the world’s fireworks come from China. And sometimes they explode early, with deadly consequences.
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05.20.15Q. and A.: Luo Yufeng, a.k.a. Sister Feng, on Life as a Manicurist in New York
New York Times
Sister Feng, whose real name is Luo Yufeng, is an Internet celebrity with more than 4.7 million followers on Sina Weibo
Photo Gallery
04.30.15
Miners of Huaibei
Coal miners in Huaibei, in northern Anhui province, pose for photographer Xie Zhengyi, a member of the photo agency CPressphoto. This city of two million sits atop an estimated 2.726 million tons of coal, as well as other mineral reserves.China is...
Photo Gallery
04.10.15
Stroller Factory, 1999
In 1999, photographer Willem Wernsen spent ten days in the small city of Kengzi, in Guangdong province, about 30 miles northeast of Shenzhen in an industrial zone. This was part of a longer, five-week trip, Wernsen’s first to the People’s Republic...
Viewpoint
02.20.15
Major China Apple Supplier Pays Workers Less Than Foxconn
Apple, the world’s most beloved maker of sleek mobile phones, powerful personal computers, and slim portable music players recently reported record profits—money a new report from the New York-based nongovernmental organization China Labor Watch (...
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02.06.15China Labor Strife Rises; Death of a Foreman
Wall Street Journal
As the Lunar New Year homeward migration approaches, workers press for back-wages.
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01.05.15Falling Through the Cracks of China’s Health-Care System
Wall Street Journal
China says 95% of its 1.34 billion people are covered by medical insurance. That should have included Zhao Guomei, whose struggle with a rare but treatable disease shows how the system is failing for millions of China’s workers.
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12.19.14Here’s Where All Those Cheap Santa Hats and Plastic Snowmen Come from
Quartz
The Chinese city of Yiwu, about 250 kilometers from Shanghai, is often referred to as China’s “Christmas village” thanks to the massive amount of holiday-related merchandise made there. Xinhua, China’s state-news agency, claims that 60% of the world...
Viewpoint
05.16.14
Government Steps Up To Labor’s Demands
On April 14, most of the 40,000 workers at the Dongguan Yue Yuen shoe factory—supplier to Nike, Adidas, and other international brands—began what would become a two-week work stoppage. While there are thousands of strikes in China every year, the...
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05.14.14Shoe Maker Yue Yuen Suspends Vietnam Production Amid Protests
Reuters
Vietnam accounts for about a third of Yue Yuen's global production capacity, which amounted to 313 million pairs of shoes last year.
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01.18.13Chinese Man Seeking Overdue Wages, Kills Himself, Injures 7 in Explosion
Xinhua
A man in south China’s Guangdong Province ignited explosives on his body, killing himself and injuring seven others, official media said.
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12.27.12Signs of Changes Taking Hold in Electronics Factories in China
New York Times
Apple, the electronics industry’s behemoth, in the last year has tripled its corporate social responsibility staff, has re-evaluated how it works with manufacturers, has asked competitors to help curb excessive overtime in China and has reached out...
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12.13.12Rectification of Names, 鸿海 Division
Atlantic
Now you might be thinking: Oh, no! Another Chinese company whose name I have to remember and that I have to care about. Calm down. As people who operate in China know, and as one "by the way" clause in the story points out, Hon Hai...