China workers starting to riot!!!

DONGGUAN, China - Heralded by an unprecedented series of walkouts, the first stirrings of unrest have emerged among the millions of youthful migrant workers who supply seemingly inexhaustible cheap labor for the vast expanse of factories in China's booming Pearl River Delta. The rest of the article

China is starting to look like America during the early 1900's. I wonder what country the Globalist will start to ship manufacturing jobs to next.

nothing new here...

you here about it now more though as world attention seems increasingly drawn towards China.

Disgruntled factory workers are getting more support from the government now... recently an example was the first trade union under wall-mart allowed.

At the end of the day it's just another step towards higher minimum wages and a better standard of life

it seems interesting that in the Communist countries, individuals are gaining more rights and freedoms, in the Capitalist countries the exact opposite is occurring.

Could it be a plan to converge everyone to a similar living standard so we will more readily accept one world government ?

Let's pray that another tienammin (sp) square like scenario doesn't happen...

Its a BIG STEP TO Higher Wages and Workers Rights...

Wow! good job USA! and Wall-mart !

They had to be behind this !


Whats going to happen next is the workers will riot and get higher wages... and making american labor competitive again ! Haha


Thank You Wallmart!

Originally posted by TrueLies
Let's pray that another tienammin (sp) square like scenario doesn't happen...

I will 2nd that request. China is in the big time now and must act accordingly. The violence of the past is unacceptable.

Originally posted by HISTER
Its a BIG STEP TO Higher Wages and Workers Rights...

Wow! good job USA! and Wall-mart !

They had to be behind this !


Whats going to happen next is the workers will riot and get higher wages... and making american labor competitive again ! Haha


Thank You Wallmart!

why does wall-mart still not allow trade unions in the US then?

[edit on 27-11-2004 by Chuck Stevenson]

WalMart did not want trade unions in China either.

Now they have to pay more for product ...

Originally posted by cryptorsa1001
I wonder what country the Globalist will start to ship manufacturing jobs to next.

I think with alittle work Russia is going to be the place to go for manufacturing and high tech jobs. Russia was a very well schooled work force that can work on the cheap compared to the US or most of Europe.

Ford motor company has even opened up a new factory in Saint Petersburgh. The Russian people also excel in the field of Math and alot of Computer companies are now turning their eyes toward Russia for good programmers.

But the reasons why more companies are not investing in Russia are complex. A few things they have to work on is the loads of red tape and corruption companies can face.

They have a well educated and cheap work force thats just not being tapped into the way it should. If companies do though as I think the will in time Russia will regain its super power status.

Originally posted by Lucretius



why does wall-mart still not allow trade unions in the US then?

You didn't follow. Wallmart a company that doesn't have a Union in America, started a union for its employees in China.

The sounds weird right? Why would they do that? Do they care more about China workers than American Workers?

No silly.! The reason that WallMart did that was too incite the workers in china to either a revolt ... or too Labor Unions...

Either way the cost of China's Labor goes up... making American Labor more competitive.

OH NO!!!! Does this mean that I can't get $15 jeans from Wal-Mart anymore???? It's about time those people kicked their government in the arse and got the fair treatment and wages they deserved. Good for them.

Originally posted by ShadowXIX

Originally posted by cryptorsa1001
I wonder what country the Globalist will start to ship manufacturing jobs to next.

I think with alittle work Russia is going to be the place to go for manufacturing and high tech jobs. Russia was a very well schooled work force that can work on the cheap compared to the US or most of Europe.

Ford motor company has even opened up a new factory in Saint Petersburgh. The Russian people also excel in the field of Math and alot of Computer companies are now turning their eyes toward Russia for good programmers.

But the reasons why more companies are not investing in Russia are complex. A few things they have to work on is the loads of red tape and corruption companies can face.

They have a well educated and cheap work force thats just not being tapped into the way it should. If companies do though as I think the will in time Russia will regain its super power status.

A-freakin-men.

Its about time someone said something good about Russia. They are some of the most innovative, hard working, intelligent people out there. And these "unexplainable" factors hampering their growth into a technological and industrial giant? Gee-whiz, couldn't be old cold-war feelings hampering this could it??? No, the U.S. and other "Free and Democratic Nations" would never try to hamper in the developement of a young Democracy would they?? Of course they wouldn't.... unless it was China or Russia.

Originally posted by BeLowUIdontevenknowu

You didn't follow. Wallmart a company that doesn't have a Union in America, started a union for its employees in China.

The sounds weird right? Why would they do that? Do they care more about China workers than American Workers?

No silly.! The reason that WallMart did that was too incite the workers in china to either a revolt ... or too Labor Unions...

Either way the cost of China's Labor goes up... making American Labor more competitive.

Actually no

The chinese government were the ones to ask wall-mart to set up the union after workers sent in petitions... wall-mart resisted until the very end... even promising court action

[edit on 28-11-2004 by Lucretius]

A few points:

1. This is nothing new at all.
Violent protests from underpaid, maltreated Chinese workers have been occuring since not long after Mao died in 1976. One of the wave-crests of this trend was the Tiananmen Square protests. Few people realize that a large protion of the protestors were actually factory workers. The army was actually deployed to many areas in various provinces to prevent communication and amalgamation between the student groups and the workers. If workers weren't faced with dismissal from their jobs, and the inability to support themselves while in Beijing, the turnout at that protest would have been much, much greater.

Even Western-owned and run companies are not immune to this. Tim Clissold, the first truly major Western investor in China-based manufacturing (US$400,000,000 invested and lost, ladies and gents), in his book "Mr. China", details violent protests and riots from factory workers. And I mean the cars overturned and buildings set on fire kind of riots, not a couple of factory foremen getting beaten up.

2. The company is Taiwanese-owned, employing Chinese labor.
The Chinese Communist Party has a long history of planting or employing people to incite protests, elevate the violence of protests, and generally cause trouble for those it doesn't like. With the recent increase in tension between China and Taiwan, this incident is a little suspicious. One wonders if the Taiwanese owners of the factories didn't displease someone in the CCP in Dongguan. This sort of thing would be VERY easy to incite knowing that the majority of the Chinese people believe the anti-Taiwan propoganda that the CCP feeds them.

As for the comments on China's state of affairs, most of them are the opinions of the Chief Executive of the company itself, Mr.Chiang, a Taiwanese national. Impartial? Hmmm...

3. The article is from the Washington Post, a paper well-known for it's support for Taiwanese independence and anti-CCP stance.

Come on folks. When you read an article, you have to think about who the publisher of that article is, the sources quoted by the article, how much of it is opinion, and so forth.

In short, they have their propoganda...and so do we.

Well,some of your points are different from what I know.
The protests of workers have come into being for not a long time,but recently it seems to heat up.I don't know there had been such protests even in the early 1990's ,at that time,the income of every chinese is more or less the same,and there wasn't unemployment.so when everyone around you is underpaid and maltreated,there is no need to protest.
The Tiananmen square protests was started by the college students to call for democracy and protests corruption,later other people joined to protest the everincreasing price.in 1989,there was a inflation,which cazed panic among the people and again this panic heated the inflation,since at that time any chinese had a very low income,the high price was unbearable to all of them. a large protion of the protestors were actually factory workers.
of course,becaz at that time the population of city in china are almost made of factory workers.

since the 1990s,the chinese economy boomed,a lot of peasants went to the factories, they got an income less than $80 per month.in the early 1990s,that was a relatively high income,but in about 10 years time,while the income of other jobs doubled,tripled and increased more times,their wages had hardly changed,now u can hardly make a living with $100 per month,and even such a low wage sometimes can't be given on time.this is why u see there are many riots of underpaid worker in china.(another reason is recently more attention has been drawn to China)


As for the Union,I really don't think they had played a fair part. the govent officers in China all focus on how to introduce more investments and thus gain more credits for promotion,the result is that often the Union was disregarded and the intrests of workers were sacrificed.

The majority of Taiwan's investments went to the mainland(note:Taiwan is also a part of china),although their politicians suggested otherwise,that shows that most of the merchants in china has had a good time.and Taiwan's companies in the mainland has not so good a fame in their treatments to the workers,perhaps some of them,under the protection of the local govent, just thought they are the worker's master.I'm very glad to know that some of the workers are beginning to resort to law for their own basic humanrights,but when the govent doesn't work,Let there be a riot!

[edit on 28-11-2004 by suihx]

It is true that the protests and riots have been heating up somewhat, despite what the CCP propaganda would like us to believe, but it is certainly not a purely recent thing. Rioting and protesting by workers did not only start in the 90's. The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and subsequent massacre was the culmination of years of protesting throughout the late 70's and the 80's. The CCP would like you to believe that everything was wonderful and rosy under the rule of Deng Xiao Ping. They would like you to believe that it was a one-off incident where the people were fine one day, angry and protesting the next, then went back to being happy again, but that's not the case.

After the massacre, the riots and protests calmed down for a time because the CCP had shown their bloody hand and terrorized the people into submission. But not long after, the unrest began again. So, again, this is not a new phenomenon in China. I don't think it's time to start ringing the alarm bells just yet, but it will definitely interesting times for China over the next five years.

As to comments regarding the sovereignty of Taiwan (and your encouragement of riots against the "Taiwanese Masters"), there are plenty of other threads on ATS regarding that issue. Let's stay on topic, please.

Originally posted by HISTER
Its a BIG STEP TO Higher Wages and Workers Rights...

Wow! good job USA! and Wall-mart !

They had to be behind this !

With a demand for higher wages this also means lay offs and less workers....

In communist China these people who get laid off are going to wish they never participated in this strike, they'll be working at another job possibly worse then what they have now..Also they'll be making the same as everyone else again(maybe even less then what they were making at the auto plant)...
That is, if the government gives them work, maybe they won't as punishment...

who knows, communism doesn't work....

whatever happens, god speed Chinamen!



[edit on 28-11-2004 by TrueLies]

As to comments regarding the sovereignty of Taiwan (and your encouragement of riots against the "Taiwanese Masters"), there are plenty of other threads on ATS regarding that issue. Let's stay on topic, please.

I guess u misunderstood me,my encouragement is that the workers must fight for their own rights,regardless who owns the factory.and as far as I know,the mainland govent never encouraged the workers to riot against taiwan boss.


CCP has enforced a information censorship in the Mainland,so it is not easy to get such informations,but on the contary,such censorship also cauzed widespread rumors and the bad reputation of the government.
The chinese people certainly needn't rely on the propogander to know how their living conditons are.
But i saw some foreign reports on china are also not so precise,part of the reason may be that the reporters themselves are not so familiar with the chinese society,so too many things were labeled with politices,also becaz of the censorship,it is hard for any media to get reliable informations.


u said their were protests in 1970s,actually The "Cultural Revolution" ended in 1976, the reformers took charge in 1978,
and the mainland started to develop its economy since the 1980s,
before that time,China is in a politics chaos,a time when everyone seems having gone mad,there were protests,but the reasons were hard to understand, I myself is also quite confused with it,but it wasn't against the poor pay,CCP's authourity or sth like that.

[edit on 29-11-2004 by suihx]