China Crisis

I've been predicting the imminent collapse of the Chinese economy for a while now, and it seems I might finally be proved right:

Minutes after opening, the Shanghai Composite Index fell by just over 8%. while the Shenzhen Component was down almost 5%.

Within ten minutes of trading, more than 1,000 shares across China’s two stock markets had dropped by the daily limited of 10% and had their shares automatically suspended. About 1,400 companies, or more than half of those listed – filed for a trading halt in an attempt to prevent further losses.

China’s securities regulator said there was “panic” in the stock market with irrational selling off increasing and “leading the stock market to a situation of intense liquidity”.

 This lends itself to some impressive visuals:

And some Doom Filled Graphs With Big Arrows and dramatic text in case you miss the significance of the Big Arrows

Whether this does develop  into a proper crisis, as opposed to a bit of a wobble in an overall upward trend remains to be seen; though there is a whiff of genuine panic, and even some moderate concern expressed on National Radio.  If this is the real thing, then it puts all the excitement around Greece into perspective: Greece, profoundly, doesn't matter.  It's a small country, a long way away.  Even for the Eurozone countries, its only a minor nuisance.  To the rest of the world, it's a soap opera.  China going to the dogs, on the other hand, is the complete works of Shakespeare and Wagner getting played simultaneously on the same stage: a bit too much to take in, even for those who can claim expertise.  Suffice to say, Chinese demand keeps our economy ticking over.  Chinese supply keeps our lifestyles comfortable (our meaning New Zealand, and the rest of world).

If either part of that equation is jeopardised, and we'll feel it, massively.  If both are affected, we'll be staring into an abyss that makes the situation in Europe seem like a light farce.

But on a lighter note, many may not know (and few care) that China Crisis were / are a somewhat obscure New Wave British band.  While I don't think I've had cause to think of them in about 30 years, that has not detered them - Wikipedia informs me they are still going.

Here's one of their songs, to while away a few minutes while we wait to see just how doomed we are.

Meanwhile, in China ...

Our Esteemed Trading Partners are taking care of business as usual:

Radio Free Asia reported Tuesday that 22 ethnic Uighurs were killed Aug. 20 when security forces opened fire at a house in a suburb of Kashgar.

The area, which lies close to China's borders with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, has been a frequent site of bloodshed between the dominant ethnic Han Chinese and Uighurs, a Muslim minority.

Local sources verified the Radio Free Asia account to the Los Angeles Times, saying the dead were buried before their families were notified of their deaths. But they provided no further details.

The World Uyghur Congress,  a Germany-based advocacy group, says that it has documented a number of deadly incidents since March, some of which were also reported by the official Chinese media. In all, they say 103 to 138 people have been killed and at least 125 arrested.

Funny how we aren't so concerned about the plight of the Uighurs as we are about other peoples who have had their land stolen, their culture suppressed and who are bullied into submission by totalitarian thuggery.

And again ...

Four dead and fifty trapped in a fresh mining disaster in the PRC.

Bloody business as usual

Okay, so some brave soldiers were killed in Afghanistan today.

This is tragic for them, for their families and friends, and for the people of Aghanistan as it's going to speed the withdrawal from that unhappy country, and leave it to blunder back into the dark ages of Taliban-Warlord Hell. We mourn these deaths, because soldiers were sent there to fight a barbaric regime and it's terrorist acolytes. Whatever terribel things have been done by colaition soldiers in Afghanistan, whatever blunders there have been, and however it ends up (I'm betting; badly) there was a moral case to be made for them and that their deaths were in pursuit of some good end.

But also today, another 29 miners were killed in an explosion in China.

The connection might not be immediately obvious. But think about it. These men were working in the ramshackle, corrupt and deadly mining industry in China. Chinese mines drive the Chinese industrial boom, which in turn produces the apparently endless quantities of consumer baubles we're so hungry for. Without those baubles, our quality of life will take a hit; so I suppose you could say these miners also died in pursuit of - from our self interested point of view - some good end.

Last year, over 2,400 people died in mining accidents in the PRC - this is considered an 'improvement' on 2009. Never mind the other deaths related to mining, but which didn't actually happen in mining accidents, and the maimings and sickness associated with the industry.

Only I don't think you'll hear their deaths being discussed or mourned with quite the same intensity. After all, admitting our life style is based on driving people into death trap mines isn't something we're entirely happy thinking about too much.

Nothing to be proud of

So it's very nice that the Chinese government have decided to release Ai Weiwei. It's even nicer to think that pressure from the west might have had something to do with his realease, though this seems to be wistful thinking. When a regime brags that a newly released prisoner has shown a "good attitude in confessing his crimes," it probably isn't caving in. Ai Weiwei's silence on release speaks volumes, as they say. He's not triumphed over the viciousness of the regime; he's been broken by it and, like Winston Smith in 1984, is drinking at The Chestnut Tree.

Nor is it enough to note, as the Independent does, that Ai Weiwei was just one of over a thousand political prisoners in the PRC, and they remain imprisoned (1). That's better than celebrating a single release; but it's still missing the point. In fact, it seems to me to be a deliberate diversion.

By focusing on this or that celebrity prisoner, we can conveniently excuse our blindness to how we exploit Chinese labour, take advantage of the PRC's totalitarian tendency when it is convenient to us - we like those baubles and trinkets, but we don't like have to pay too much for them. We deliberately ignore the oppression of Tibetans and Uighurs, the arrest of workers who try to form independent trade unions, the thousands killed and injured in Chinese mines where cornoers are cut because of the desperate need to keep costs down, the brutal working conditions imposed by employers who are churning out toys for us to play with. We salve our cosciences by making a token fuss about people like Ai Weiwei, but purposefully ignore our own massive, hypocritical convenient connivance in oppression and state brutality.

1 - "Ai Weiwei is free; another 1,426 are not," unattributed editorial. Published in The Independent, 24th of June, 2011. (http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-ai-weiwei-is-free-another-1426-are-not-2301849.html)

Explosion at Foxconn plant

From the Guardian:

A spokesman for the company said people had been injured in a fire at the plant but that it had no details. The company is best-known for producing iPhones and iPads for Apple, but other clients include Nokia, Motorola, Hewlett-Packard and Dell. Employing up to 900,000 people in all, Foxconn has repeatedly been the subject of controversy over working conditions at its vast plants. The affected one is believed to employ up to 100,000 people.

A report on Chinese news portal Sina said the area had been sealed off after a blast ripped through the plant at around the time workers changed shifts. Police in Gaoxin district said they were called to the scene at 7.18pm and that the explosion seemed to have been caused by materials within the factory. A report on the China National Radio website said two were killed and 16 injured, three seriously. (1)

This is just another tragedy resulting from our hypocritical exploitation of the PRC's laissez faire attitude towards worker's rights, wages, representation and safety.

Foreign companies setting up in China should be required - or, better yet, insist on - basic standards of decency, in terms of wages, worker conditions and union recognition. We insist on these things for ourselves, it's absurd that we're happy to ignore them when it comes to the Chinese labour that makes the stuff that lets us enjoy a preposterous standard of living.

Of course, the whole thing's a shoddy trick to get us thinking we've still got it good based on cheap imports and never mind we've got no jobs, so perhaps I'm the one who is absurd for even making the point.

Liberty, equality and fraternity, or cheap vanity-baubles made by Morlock labour in China, who occasionally get blown up? Workers of all lands unite? Or workers of the developed world live like kings on the backs of the third world? It wasn't much of a contest.

1 - "Workers killed in blast at China plant of iPad maker Foxconn," by Tania Brannigan. Published in The guardian, 20th of May, 2011. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/may/20/foxconn-apple-blast-china)

First Foxconn suicide of 2011

I checked on a whim and, sadly, it seems the 'rightswash' carried out by Foxconn last year, following a spate of suicides, was just that - a phony exercise to quieten down media interest, so business as usual could carry on.

Certainly, it doesn't seem to have stopped workers killing themselves through desperation:

The unnamed employee, who had worked for Foxconn since 2005, had "been on sick leave" at the time of her death after factory officials rebuked her for an unknown reason and told her she would lose her job. Taiwan media further reported that the worker was mentally troubled. (1)

Of course, it's in all our interests, as Westerners, that business as usual carries on. Imagine having to pay a fair price for an Ipad?

1 - "New Foxconn employee commits suicide in Shenzhen," unattributed article. Published in The Global Times, 15th of January, 2011. (http://china.globaltimes.cn/society/2011-01/612970.html)

Bastards yet again

While we're on the subject of Uighurs, what about this?

Last December, 20 Uighur refugees were forcibly deported back to China from Cambodia. Now, one year later, they’re still missing.

The ethnic Uighurs from northwest China had been applying for asylum in Cambodia because they feared persecution and torture in China. They fled China’s Xinjiang region during a crackdown that followed deadly riots there in July 2009. Hundreds of Uighurs were arrested, and several were executed, after what Human Rights Watch called “grave violations of due process.”

Just one day after the Uighurs were deported last year, China’s Vice President arrived in Cambodia. That visit ended with $1.2 billion dollar grant-and-loan deal for Cambodia. (1)

And, if you're still struggling to wotrk out what's going on, maybe this will help:

Ablikim Abdureyim, one of Kadeer's 11 children, told relatives who visited him in prison last week that he was mistreated, placed in solitary confinement and that his health has been deteriorating, supporters said.

Amnesty International said Abdureyim was confined after refusing to sign a document denying that he witnessed an unspecified "controversial incident" in the Urumqi city prison.

Catherine Baber, the rights group's Asia-Pacific deputy director, urged China to release Abdureyim and called his treatment "the latest example of systematic human rights abuses suffered by China's Uighur population." (2)

Life sentences, torture and disappearances. These are our valued trading partners.

1 - "20 Uighurs Still Missing After Being Sent Back to China in 2009," unattributed article. Publsihed by NTD TV, 22nd of December, 2010. (http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/ns_china/2010-12-22/126167258980.html)
2 - "China urged to probe Uighur 'torture'," unattributed article. Published by AFP. Reproduced by Google News, 22nd of December, 2010. (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iqg3aS0stiN43TR0fDu0CFC13COg?docId=CNG.60eb4047766bf2f855b1e742fd8c9784.ca1)

Bastards again

After the disgusting 15 year sentence handed out to Uighur journalist and blogger Halaite Niyaze (1), the Bastards of Beijing have decided to stop being nice and doled out a LIFE SENTENCE to Uighur journalist Memetjan Abdulla.

His crime? Translating a release by the World Uyghur Congress and putting it up on his website (2). This merits a life sentence for supposedly inciting people to riot.

This happened back in April, but has only just been revealed. Another blogger, Gulmire Imin, was apparently sentenced at the same time as Adulla, also to life imprisonment (3).

1 - As described previously on lefthandpalm: http://lefthandpalm.blogspot.com/2010/07/bastards.html
2 - "China sentences Uighur to life for reporting riots," unattributed article. Published by the Press Association. Reproduced in The Guardian, 24th of December, 2010. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9421797)
3 - "Uyghur Web Moderators Get Life," by Shohret Hoshur and Rachel Vandenbrink. Published by Radio Free Asia, 8th of August, 2010. (http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/sentence-08082010190802.html)

Free at last, et cetera

The release (1) of Aung San Suu Kyi is, of course, to be welcomed. It would have been nice, however, if New Zealand could take pride of place among the nations celebrating it. Since we decided we're okay with useful trade links (2) with a bunch of militaristic despots with scant regard for human rights (3) however, if we're invited to the party at all, it's going to reflect on the remarkable generosity of our host, not on our worthiness.

Of course, we can redeem ourselves by ensuring we're leading the campaign for the release of Liu Xiaobo, nobel prize winner, currently detained by the despots in Beijing. Oh, wait, i see we cut a trade deal with them as well ...

1 - "Aung San Suu Kyi Gains Freedom & Challenges Regime," by Richard S. Ehrlich. Published by Scoop,.co.nz, 16th of November, 2010. (http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1011/S00130/aung-san-suu-kyi-gains-freedom-challenges-regime.htm)
2 - As described previously on lefthandpalm: http://lefthandpalm.blogspot.com/2008/08/is-is-most-unfair.html
3 - As described previously on lefthandpalm: http://lefthandpalm.blogspot.com/2009/08/aung-san-suu-kyi-guilty.html

More on our valued trading partners

When not shooting Tibetan protesters dead (1), or doling out 15 year sentences to people for blogging (2), or carrying out forced abortions on Uighur women (3), our valued trading partners in the PRC are arresting school children for writing in magazines:

Chinese police in Barkham (Chinese: Ma’erkang) County of Ngaba Prefecture in Sichuan Province had arrested four Tibetan school students on Mar 17 this year for allegedly instigating fellow-students against the Chinese government, said Phayul.com Aug 26, citing an exile monk with contact in the area. While two were said to have been given a two-year jail term each, the fate of the other two remain unknown.

The four – Sonam Rinchen (19), Sonam Dhondup (18), Yargay and Drakden – were accused of instigating the students through the magazine Namchag (Thunderbolt) of which they were the contributing editors. The first two are natives of Zoege (Chinese: Ruo’ergai) county while the latter two belong to Ngaba county, both in the same prefecture.

The four were reported to have carried in their magazine several articles, poems and essays by Tibetan students expressing solidarity with the Tibetans jailed for taking part in the Mar’08 protests across Tibet and paying tribute to those killed by Chinese security forces at that time.

The four – all students of Barkham nationalities higher intermediate school – were also reported to have initiated a gathering of Tibetan students on Mar 17 this year to commemorate the 2008 uprising.

Sonam Rinchen and Yargay are said to be serving a two-year jail term each, although their whereabouts remain unknown. The other two are said to be held somewhere in Barkham, no further information being available about them. (4)

It's really something to brag about, being the first country in the world to secure a free trade agreement with people like this.

1 - As described previously on lefthandpalm: http://lefthandpalm.blogspot.com/2010/08/despicable-murderous-thugs.html
2 - As described previously on lefthandpalm: http://lefthandpalm.blogspot.com/2010/07/bastards.html
3 - As described previously on lefthandpalm: http://lefthandpalm.blogspot.com/2010/01/800000-forced-abortions-carried-out-on.html
4 - "Four school children arrested for magazine articles," unattributed article. Published by Tibetan Review, 29th of August, 2010. (http://www.tibetanreview.net/news.php?&id=7048)

Despicable, murderous thugs

... or our valued trading partners?

Courtesy of Radio Free Asia:

Police in China’s southwestern Sichuan province have responded with lethal force to a group of Tibetans protesting the expansion of a gold mining operation they say is harming the environment, according to Tibetan sources.

At least four people were killed when police officers opened fire on a crowd outside the Palyul (in Chinese, Baiyu) county government offices in Sichuan’s Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous prefecture, sources said.

As many as 30 Tibetan protesters were wounded in the Aug. 17 shooting, with some believed to be critically injured and receiving medical care in the provincial capital of Chengdu.

The number of dead in the incident could not be independently confirmed. (1)

To think Phil Goff bragged about agreeing the first Free Trade Agreement with these murdering bastards.

Whether you call the totalitarian bullies in Beijing, despicable murderous thugs, or our valued trading partners, New Zealand is their servile toady.

1 - "Police Fire on Mine Protesters," original reporting by Radio Free Asia's Tibetan service, 26th of August, 2010. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. Reproduced by Students for A Free Tibet. (http://www.studentsforafreetibet.org/article.php?id=2238)

Double tragedy in the PRC

Two further industrial tragedies have been reported, one in a fireworks factory and another one on a construction site:

The death toll from a massive explosion at a fireworks factory in north-east China has risen to at least 19 workers, with five still missing.

Up to 50 people were working at the fireworks factory in the Heilongjiang province city of Yichun when it was rocked by the explosion on Monday, damaging nearby buildings and sparking secondary blasts.

Xinhua News Agency reported the new death toll.

A total of 153 people were injured by the blast, which could be felt up to 2 miles away and smashed windows in the local government offices and other buildings, Xinhua said.

The tally appeared to include workers at the factory as well as people in the surrounding area.

Safety is lax at Chinese fireworks plants and accidents are common. Dozens of people also die each year from unsafe handling of fireworks while celebrating weddings and traditional holidays.

In another industrial accident on Monday, an elevator plunged on a construction site, killing 11 workers. Investigators were looking into the cause of the accident in the city of Mihekou in the north-eastern province of Jilin. (1)

Total of thirty dead, plus a huge number of injured.

The article goes on to note that safety standards have been improving, with some 4000 fewer deaths in 2009, compared to 2002. That's arguable; while it is likely there have been some improvements, it is also likely that deaths are not being reported, or are being intentionally misreported to avoid consequences.

1 "Fireworks blast toll rises to 19," unattributed article. Published by UKPA, 17th of August, 2010. Hosted by Google news. (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jARHE6NUHPu_IcqjE8kp4yHKDfgQ)

What a despicable person

Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal:

It’s been clear over the past few months that labor costs are going up in China. That’s now rippling to other manufacturing economies in Asia.

So says Bruce Rockowitz, president of Li & Fung Ltd., the bellwether Hong Kong-based trading and logistics giant that is a major buyer of toys and clothes for the likes of Wal-Mart and Target.

“Prices have gone up for us and our customers,” Mr. Rockowitz said while presenting Li & Fung’s semi-annual earnings results in Hong Kong Thursday. “We’ve mitigated it by looking at Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia,” he said. (1)

The fact that Chinese workers are getting paid a little bit more for their labour should be a cause for celebration. We're still enjoying the benefits of a grossly exploitative economic arrangement with a totalitarian regime, and the hapless near-slaves working 20 hour shifts making cheap baubles for our delectation are being rewarded with a very slight increase in pay and improvement in living conditions.

in other words, everyone wins (though we win most, and the near slaves, in truth, just don't lose as badly) and we can all relax and feel an iota less guilty because we can see that reform and change is coming. Engagement has worked. it is making things better.

But Mr Rockowitz's response to this good news? Look for some cheaper morlocks to exploit.

That isn't a human being talking, just a despicable little Eichmann doing his inhuman duty.

1 - "China Labor Cost Increases, Setting the Bar for Others," by Alex Frangos. Published in the Wall Street Journal, 12th of August, 2010. (http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/08/12/china-labor-cost-increases-setting-the-bar-for-other-economies/)

The real cost ... 1100+ lives?

There has been a dearth of media reports of Chinese mining disasters in the last few days. This is not, I suspect, because they have stopped happening.

The last mining disaster I'm aware of from media reports is an event in Jilin province, where 18 miners were trapped when the mine they were working in flooded (1). That was four days ago, but there has been no report of how this ended, whether the miners were rescued, or died, or are still trapped. The landslide seems to be eating up everyone's attention.

Flooding, and landslides, would appear to be natural calamities that aren't influenced by something as trivial as the lax safety standards in Chinese mines. Well, maybe, but if we look at the (slightly) bigger picture, a depressingly familiar theme can be discerned:

While China's premier Wen Jiabao posed for cameras near rescuers trying to find the more than 600 still missing, local media quoted a growing chorus of experts who warned that the landslide had been "an accident waiting to happen".

A 2006 report by Lanzhou University warned of the dangers presented by the destruction of the forests around Zhouqu for mining and agriculture, causing soil erosion and destabilising hillsides.

"The hills have become highly unstable and easily subject to natural disaster of landslides and mudslides," the report said. "The situation is the result of deforestation, exploitative mining activities, construction of hydroelectric power plants and other development activities."

Zhouqu, once known as the "Shangri La" of Gansu Province, has suffered more than ten major landslides since 1823, but experts said the risk had been increased hugely by the felling of more than 126,000 hectares of forest between 1952 and 1990.

In more recent years, the construction of a highway and more than 40 hydroelectric power dams in the sharp-sided valleys has further destabilised the geology, according to Fan Xiao, a leading Chinese geologist based in Sichuan. (2)

There would, undoudtedly, have been floods in any case. But the impact of these floods, it would seem, would have been much reduced if it weren't for the ferocious drive for growth, fueled by the west's insatiable desire for cheap consumer goods, with out too many questions being asked about just how they can be made so cheaply.

1 - "18 miners trapped in flooded shaft in China," unattributed article. Published by AFP, 10th of August, 2010. Reproduced by Google. (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j6exVPTVYvoFql-3qx0UKwATUJBA)
2 - "China landslide death toll up tops 1,100," by peter Foster. Published in the Telegraph, 11th of August, 2010. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/7939289/China-landslide-death-toll-up-tops-1100.html)

The real cost ... continued

Two more disasters, though one hasn't yet resulted in confirmed fatalities.

Six miners were confirmed dead Sunday after Saturday's sudden gas leak at a deep coal mine in southwest China's Sichuan Province, local authorities said.

Rescue efforts ended Sunday after all the bodies of the six trapped miners were found, said a spokesman with the government in Shifang City, where the coal mine is located.

The gas leak occurred at 9 a.m. Saturday down a pit about 3,500 meters deep. Fifteen workers were cleaning the mine's shaft at the time.

Nine people were lifted to ground unharmed.

Authorities are investigating the deadly incident at the mine run by Hongda Red Star Mining Co., Ltd.

In a separate case, seven miners are still trapped in a coal mine pit after a sudden gas leak early Sunday morning in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (1)

it's worth reiterating that these people are dying to provide the raw materials and fuel for Chinese industry, which in turn is the source of the slew of cheap consumer products that allow us to enjoy a standard of living far beyond the economic value of the work we do.

It's a re-jig of the slave labour that made the European economies 'great.' It's always convenient to have the ugly business of exploitation and death carried out somewhere over the horizon, where civilised folk don't have to concern themselves about it, while enjoying the benefits.

1 - "Six Die in SW China Coal Mine Gas Leak," unattributed article. Published by Xinhua, 8th of August, 2010. (http://english.cri.cn/6909/2010/08/08/1781s587446.htm)

The real cost ... continued

Another day, another mining disaster in the PRC:

Sixteen workers died when a fire broke out in a gold mine in east China, state media reported Saturday, in the latest accident to hit the nation's notoriously dangerous mining sector.

Most of the victims died of toxic smoke inhalation underground or in hospital after the accident, which happened on Friday in Shandong province's Zhaoyuan city, the official Xinhua news agency said.

More than 300 miners had been working underground when the blaze started and most were lifted to ground level safely, leaving around 50 trapped underground, a spokesman for the rescue headquarters was quoted as saying.

Rescuers then managed to pull some workers out and dozens of injured miners were sent to nearby hospitals.

The work safety bureaus in Zhaoyuan and Shandong refused to comment on the accident when contacted by AFP. (1)

Another sixteen people dead. Fifty or so trapped in a burning mine. How many families bereaved?

These stories seem to be taking over lefthandpalm. It's hard to blog about other stuff after announcing another round of industrial mass homicide.

I started logging these events out of curiosity, to see how frequently they occurred and how they were covered in the mainstream media. The answer is, it seems, not very well at all. Sure, they get the reported by the wire agencies, but the Guardian's China section doesn't mention any of the recent tragedies. Ditto, The Independent. The BBC mentions the most recent Foxconn death, in its Asia-Pacific repository (2).

Obviously, there are other stories. Pakistan is innundated. The Hiroshima commememoration in Japan deserve mention, because we shouldn't fucking forget. There's a war grinding on in Afghanistan. But the recent Chinese interest in owning liverpool FC gains more attention than the bleak, steadily increasing body count in the Chinese industrial killing fields.

It's almost like it was something we'd prefer to ignore, isn't it? It's easier to entertain vague hostility to the Chinese ruling class - the bastards want to rule the world and own our football teams, after all - but much more difficult to make an honest appraisal of our own relationship with the Chinese proletariat - which would put us far closer to the oppressors than to the oppressed.

But, anyway, they want to buy Liverpool! Whatever next?

1 - "China gold mine fire kills 16 workers," by Marianne Barriaux. Published by AFP, 7th of August, 2010. Hosted by Google News. (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hgxKVcC4nzFz4DT7kfZbmToDXFLQ)

2 - Obviously, the stories featured change, but as of the 7th of July, 2010, none of the various mining calamities warranted a mention on either site. The most recent Foxconn death was recorded by the BBC. China stories are filed at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/china, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world/asia_pacific/

and http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/

UPDATE - Just spotted an interesting and relevant column by Johann Hari in the Independent. It's well worth reading, particularly for those who pretend they haven't any power or influence:

Last year, the Chinese dictatorship was so panicked by the widespread uprisings that it prepared an extraordinary step forward. It drafted a new labour law that would allow workers to form and elect their own trade unions. It would plant seeds of democracy across China's workplaces. Western corporations lobbied very hard against it, saying it would create a "negative investment environment" – by which they mean smaller profits. Western governments obediently backed the corporations and opposed freedom and democracy for Chinese workers. So the law was whittled down and democracy stripped out.

It wasn't enough. This year Chinese workers have risen even harder to demand a fair share of the prosperity they create. Now company after company is making massive concessions: pay rises of over 60 per cent are being conceded. Even more crucially, officials in Guandong province, the manufacturing heartland of the country, have announced that they are seriously considering allowing workers to elect their own representatives to carry out collective bargaining after all.

Just like last time, Western corporations and governments are lobbying frantically against this – and to keep the millions of Yan Lis stuck at their assembly lines into the 35th hour. (3)

This might seem to contradict my earlier complaint about laclk of coverage - but a solitary article by the studiously maverick Hari actually highlights how little the mainsteam media report this topic which - where ever you stand on the issue of Morlock labour - affects us all.

The Bastards of Beijing are terrified of revolt. The foreign companies exploiting Chinese labour are terrified to losing profit - to the extent that soem are already shifting out of China because its pathetically cheap labour isn't cheap enough. So if consumers start to react at the other end, they'll feel it.

3 - "And now for some good news," by Johann Hari. Published in the Independent, 6th of August 2010. (http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-and-now-for-some-good-news-2044578.html)

Possible 14th Foxconn suicide

Courtesy of the Telegraph:

The 22-year old woman died on Wednesday after falling from a dormitary building at its Kunshan plant in eastern Jiangsu province, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer said on Friday.

Thirteen Chinese employees have committed suicide this year at Foxconn plants and an affiliate by jumping from buildings, including 10 in the southern city of Shenzhen.

It was unclear whether the latest death was a sucide. The company said it was working with local authorities to investigate. (1)

And while we're about it, the toll for the recent mining tragedies in Henan and Guizhou provinces now stands at 32 (2).

1 - "Foxconn faces fresh suicide fears as 14th worker dies," unattributed article. Published in the Telegraph, 6th of August, 2010. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/7929938/Foxconn-faces-fresh-suicide-fears-as-14th-worker-dies.html)
2 - "Chinese Mining Accidents Kill 32 This Week," unbattributed article. Published by News Time, 6th of August, 2010. (http://www.newstime.co.za/WorldNews/Chinese_Mining_Accidents_Kill_32_This_Week/8856/)

The real cost of cheap consumer goods ... continued

There have been three more significant mining tragedies in China, with 29 people killed in incidents in Henan, Guizhou and Hunan provinces (1). More are still trapped underground.

These, of course, are only the major incidents that are deemed worthy of mention. Individual deaths and maimings don't warrant coverage.

There are questions about the numbers killed in last week's Nanjing factory explosion (2) - the official toll stands at thirteen, but it has been suggested that the actuall number of dead is much higher - in part because of the ingenious practice of not counting the dead until at least three days after the explosion, at which point it could be attributed to wounds sustained in the accident, rather than the accident itself.

All very speculative, and the source is the Fulun Gong linked Epoch Times, so it has to be treated with caution. But given the probability that the PRC are releasing dishonest figures for the numbers killed in industrial accidents, interesting.

1 - "29 killed, 14 trapped in mine accidents in China," unattibuted article. Published by the PTI, 3rd of August, 2010. Reproduced by DNA India. (http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report_29-killed-14-trapped-in-mine-accidents-in-china_1418251)
2 - "Conflicting Reports and Propaganda in Wake of Explosion in Nanjing," by Cheryl Chen. Published by the Epoch Times, 2nd of August, 2010. (http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/40219/)

The real cost of cheap consumer goods ... continued

In the days since I posted this rant (1), there has been a significant explosion in a Chinese plastics factory, which has killed thirteen people so far, with eleven more in critical condition (2).

And in the last few hours, there has been another major explosion at a Chinese mine, with a reported death toll of at least fifteen (3).

1 - As described previosuly on lefthandpalm: http://lefthandpalm.blogspot.com/2010/07/real-cost-of-cheap-consumer-goods.html

2 - "China Plastics Plant Blast Death Toll Rises to 13; 11 in Critical Shape," unattributed article. Published by Bllomberg News, 29th of July, 2010. (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-29/china-plastics-plant-blast-death-toll-rises-to-13-11-in-critical-shape.html)

3 - "Fifteen killed in china coal mine blast," unattributed article. Published in the Irish Examiner, 31st of July, 2010. (http://www.examiner.ie/breakingnews/world/fifteen-killed-in-china-coal-mine-blast-467485.html#ixzz0vGBf2Pp4)