During the run up to Christmas 2019, a six-year-old girl from Tooting in south London was rummaging through a box of charity Christmas cards from Tesco. Florence Widdicombe found a card with a message, which read: “We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu prison China. Forced to work against our will. Please help and notify human rights organization”. The message came with a plea for the reader to contact Peter Humphrey, who had been released from the same prison in June 2015. Humphrey, who was duly contacted by Florence’s father Ben, passed on the details to the Sunday Times, where the story appeared on December 22, under the heading “Tesco charity cards ‘packed by China’s prison slaves’ “. Notes tucked into products have previously been smuggled out from Chinese production facilities on several occasions, describing poor working conditions. This particular incident highlighted concerns with ethical standards in China’s detention facilities, where prisoners are reportedly often used as a source of unpaid forced labour .
It is worth revisiting the process by which China has become the world’s largest manufacturer in order to better understand how such undesirable situations have come to arise in the Chinese workplace. This once relatively poor Communist nation has taken over as the largest exporter in the world, from 2010 onwards, earning the sobriquet of “the world’s factory”. The transformation has been dramatic and has irretrievably changed the social landscape in China in the process.
In December 1978, Deng Xiaoping was simultaneously appointed to a trio of positions normally held by the Supreme Leader of China: General Secretary of the Communist Party, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and State President. In 1979, Deng initiated a period of economic reform, successfully transforming an underperforming centralised planning economy into a limited and mixed market economy that was to become a global economic powerhouse. At the outset, he reiterated the “Four Modernisations” for development- in agriculture, industry, national defence, and science and technology, thereby defining the areas to be prioritised for change. The transition was facilitated by tight political control, imposed by an authoritarian one-party state with a massive party membership. The changes were introduced gradually, to avoid the economic shock caused by a “Big Bang”. One of the early innovations involved the setting up of “special economic zones”-capitalist enclaves with liberal tax laws that provided many incentives for foreign investment. Shenzhen, in the Pearl River delta, was set up as a special economic zone in August 1980 and has gone on to become the major manufacturing hub in all of Asia.
China’s commanding position has been brought about by the combination of a large workforce, low labour costs, lower production costs, and higher production capabilities-the result of a well-developed infrastructure, advanced production technologies and strong management. Costs are also kept low through economies of scale, as most Chinese manufacturers require a high minimum order quantity before they will agree to supply goods. China has developed a diversified manufacturing base, specialising in a wide range of different product categories. Chinese-made products supply the world’s needs in diverse areas, such as electronic goods, electrical machinery, car parts, furniture, food products, pharmaceuticals, clothing, lighting, handbags and wallets, books, toys, among others. These successes have prompted several global luxury brands to shift production to China. Chinese goods have come to dominate the world’s seas as they are conveyed in large volumes within huge container ships to feed an insatiable global demand for all things made in China.
But all of this comes at a cost. While China’s GDP has multiplied several-fold in recent years, this economic growth has often been achieved through an acceptance of lower ethical, social and environmental standards in the workplace. Frequently, the adequate monitoring of manufacturing processes is hindered by complex supply chains and the innate secrecy of the Chinese bureaucracy. Third parties, such as trading companies, sourcing agents and platforms, and wholesale businesses, are often required as intermediaries to deal with Chinese factories. Furthermore, work is frequently sub-contracted to smaller providers, such as privately owned factories, construction sites and warehouses, that fall outside the usual radar of surveillance.
Workplace standards are highly variable, ranging from the excellent through to conditions that can only be equated with modern-day slavery. Long hours of work, low wages, unpaid overtime, and a lack of sick pay are often coupled with poor safety standards when it comes to the handling of toxic chemicals and potentially dangerous equipment, alongside poor fire safety precautions. Short-term migrant workers, from poor and mainly rural areas, frequently have to live in overcrowded dormitories on-site, with poor sanitary, plumbing and heating facilities. Workers’ health can be further compromised by environmental pollution in the vicinity of the factories where they work. They can be subjected to verbal and physical abuse, and are unable to access social insurance, unemployment benefits, and pension schemes.
In response to ongoing pressure from purchasers, foreign governments and NGOs, stronger protection for workers is emerging in the form of written contracts, codes of conduct, and adequate compensation upon dismissal. Health and safety issues at the workplace are also being addressed by recent changes in labour legislation. China has become increasingly wary about managing its international reputation in a way that is seen to be respectful of employment and human rights legislation.
China’s economic growth is also showing signs of slowing down, while debt continues to rise. There is a glut of unused or under-utilised high-rise apartment complexes, skyscrapers and waterfront developments. Labour costs, in the form of wages, are rising and there is a concurrent growing shortage of labour, brought about by the one-child policy of the 1990s and early 2000s and an increasing reluctance to take on low-paid repetitive factory jobs devoid of any reasonable quality of life. White-collar jobs are widely preferred to traditional blue-collar employment. Major factory owners are shifting some low-end manufacturing elsewhere in Southeast Asia to reduce operational costs.
A rapidly rising domestic demand for consumer goods within China is shifting the emphasis away from an export-driven economy, which has further come under strain from tariffs imposed in the course of the trade wars with America. The desire to boost living standards at home, as well as a requirement to comply with global ethical standards, can be expected to guide continued improvements in the lives of Chinese workers, all for the longer-term good. It is likely, however, that the all-powerful Chinese state will choose to take things at its own pace and at its own terms, unswayed by global opinion.
Ashis Banerjee (consumer of Chinese goods)