From AAM's very own Kerri Houston Toloczko, a thoughtful essay on China's workers. ManufactureThis and the Alliance for American Manufacturing worked hard in 2008 to expose China’s cheating on trade, illegal subsidies, and currency.  We informed Americans about the devastating effects that China’s bad behavior has had on the U.S. economy – particularly in our manufacturing sector. We’ve raised quite a fuss.  Unscientific studies have shown that due to our work on “China Cheats,” way more Americans are much smarter about China’s role in our shrinking manufacturing base than they were in 2007. China, the government of, is at best a centrally planned economy that subsidizes all of its major industries and stifles freedoms that we take for granted. At worst, it is a communist country fighting for global control through economic dominance by subsidizing all of its major industries and stifling freedoms that we take for granted. It also has a painfully dysfunctional relationship with its 22 provinces, rife with corruption and human rights abuses, that makes it nearly impossible for the central government to identify or enforce environmental or labor laws, which, on occasion, it actually does (try).  Okay, so we are all mad at China.  But when we say “China” – whom do we really mean? We mean China, the government of.  Perhaps sometimes we forget about China, the people of.  Labor abuse remains widespread in China.  Although wages in China’s booming eastern cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Dalian are becoming competitive with western wages, the interior provinces and retail manufacturing areas are a mess. The photo above is of a number of workers who were rescued by central government action in 2007 from forced labor brick making plants in northern China.  Not rescued, as they seemed to have disappeared into thin air, were hundreds of young children forced to work in these plants. Because eastern China is experiencing some worker shortages, services such as healthcare, clean water and housing are being held back in interior provinces to force workers east.   Many Chinese factory workers remain exposed to chemical and environmental contaminants, are poorly trained in safety, and use dangerous machinery.   In the Pearl River delta area north of Hong Kong, it is reported that factory workers lose or break 40,000 fingers per year.  Yikes. Minimum wage laws are such a random patchwork of wily nilly rules set by the central government, the provinces and the local overloads that it is impossible to even identify them, much less enforce them.  Many workers are still paid less than 50 cents an hour, work 16 hour shifts and have six or even seven day workweeks.  Manufacturing facilities are hot and loud and workers have no air conditioning or ear protection.   And often, no healthcare.   It is reported that forced prison labor is still widely used in some areas of the country.  Chinese environmental and labor activists who try to bring attention to the plight of Chinese workers still get disappeared on a regular basis.   Child labor is rampant.   On Christmas Eve, as we are wrapping presents purchased carefully to ensure that little Tommy and Suzie won’t be ingesting lead paint or swallowing loose doll eyeballs, lets remember that China is not just some massive blob on the global map nor is it simply a bunch of high level bureaucrats trying to acquire Boardwalk, Park Place and the B & O Railroad by cheating. China is people too.  It is also a country full of millions of workers who just want to feed their families and keep them safe, but suffer terribly in an effort to do so. Lets say a prayer for them tonight and keep them in our hearts as we await the joys of Christmas morning.   And hope that someday, somehow, the devoted work of people like us will have a positive impact on their lives as well. God bless us, everyone.