4 ms·
It's our way. We do business with China and visit them regularly, even though we know that much of what makes their manufacturing industry so competitive is the
by pstack 15y ago
It's our way. We do business with China and visit them regularly, even though we know that much of what makes their manufacturing industry so competitive is the use of slave prison labor.
It's weird how we decide what people deserve "liberation" and what people we just shrug our shoulders at and keep supporting, in one form or another, the government that is oppressing them.
- cynicalkane 15y agoWe do business with China and visit them regularly, even though we know that much of what makes their manufacturing industry so competitive is the use of slave prison labor Though the conditions of labor in China seem shocking to comfortable Americans, they are not, in general, "slave prison labor".
- unreal37 15y agoHow about this. I visited China last year, and saw/heard about the following. Say you want to build a new building. The workers are brought to the construction site, and they live on the site 24/7, taking shifts to sleep in a small cot. When they are not sleeping they are working (7 days a week). They do not see their families for months during the job. They work on site for several months, and will only receive pay after the building is done. If you have to leave the site for some reason (say a sick or dying relative, or you get sick yourself) before the building is done, you forfeit all your pay. You could have worked 6 months on a job, and if you hurt yourself, you go home without even $1. It's a deplorable condition being forced to live where you work. It's a prison, even if voluntary.
- 100tonmantis 15y agoSource for "slave prison labor" in China please.
- pstack 15y agohttp://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4515197.stm http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co... "Using their vast pools of free labour, China's prisons produce everything from green tea to coal, paperclips to footballs, medical gloves to high-grade optical equipment." http://www.goiam.org/index.php/news/iam-news/2007-iam-news-archives/4610-senate-hearing-examines-sweatshop-conditions-in-china http://www.goiam.org/index.php/news/iam-news/2007-iam-news-a... "Prison Labor is also being exploited in China, according to executive director of the Laogai Research Foundation Harry Wu, who said prison laborers make garments, electronic components, coffee mugs and toys that end up in U.S. stores. “The Chinese government continues to use forced labor to make goods, condones sweatshop conditions in its factories, and refuses to allow workers to create independent unions-- is it really any wonder that low-quality, harmful toys are being exported to the US and into the hands of our children?” said Wu, who spent 19 years in a Chinese prison. Wal-Mart was singled out for their role in allowing the exploitation of cheap Chinese labor. “Wal-Mart bears a lion’s share of responsibility for pushing the toy industry into a region where product safety and worker safety inspection is virtually nonexistent,” said Bama Athreya, executive director of the International Labor Rights Forum." http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa45502.000/hfa45502_0.HTM http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa45502.000/hf... 1998 FORCED LABOR IN CHINA - HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITEE ON INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
- 100tonmantis 15y agoThat is pretty terrible. Thank you for posting your sources.
- bdunbar 15y agoI don't know about the majority of manufacturing in mainland China. I do know that the several thousand people my employer has in manufacturing there are not slave labor.