Child Labor in Asia Awareness Project - China

Welcome to one of the three wiki pages devoted to the Child Labor in Asia awareness video.  This page is devoted to the facts and images in the video for all things having to do with China.  The other two pages have their links pasted below that contain the other two parts of the research areas.

Alternative Links

http://kohcla.pbworks.com/FrontPage - Allen Koh - Child Labor in Indonesia

http://conradcla.pbworks.com/FrontPage - Michael Conrad - Executions in China (for video, Singapore American School comparison)

Child Labor in Asia - The Video

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Human Rights Issue - The Research Paper

China and its everlasting fight against worker abuse

  As the world drops into a recession, one of the most pressing issues is: how will businesses continue to make money?  The simplest solution, and by far the most common, is cutting costs.  Businesses across the globe are cutting costs by any means necessary in an attempt to increase profit margins.  Generally, the term ‘cutting costs’ can be interpreted in many ways, the most common procedures to achieving this is, decreasing wages, decreasing staff, basically, an across-the-board cut in variable costs.  By doing this, many businesses hope to ride out the wave of recession and remain operational until the recession has passed.  However, the underlying question now is: how does the issue of human rights in China come into play here?   

            As the 20^th century came to an end, China emerged as having possibly the fastest growing economy.  As the 21^st century begins to unfold, it has proven itself worth of this title, as annually, China remains one of the fastest growing economies, and definitely one of the biggest producers and exporters of the world.  Think about it, when was the last time you looked at a pair of shoes, or a piece of electronics, or a useless plastic toy that didn’t have “Made in China” on the bottom of it.  The three words on imprinted on the majority of imports for many of the largest countries in the world.  These three words have also given China a mixed reputation.  As China grows and becomes better known, it becomes one of the main go-to places for cheap labor. With this title come the issue of whether or not China is utilizing its workforce within the boundaries of safe human rights.  The simple question that pops into the mind of many grows from the fact that you can buy a toy for 50 cents with the mark, “Made in China” on the back of it.  This mark is the symbol of China’s huge step into the industrial age, and being the forerunner in production in things such as toy production, textiles, construction, food production, and mechanical work[1].  As China moved into the industrial age, many things were gained, one of the major being a hefty boost in GDP, providing a better lifestyle for many Chinese people, as more money was prevalent.  However, what it sacrificed to do so became, to many, labor that violated many human rights issues.  The reason behind this is simple, as companies begin to produce, they have a certain cost they must undergo to make ‘x’ amount of goods, lets call this “C” for costs.  Later, when they sell the product to those who demand it, they receive a certain amount of money from the buyers, the buyers price, or, “P”. Although a gross overgeneralization, .  On top of this, in most cases, most factories operate under a highly competitive market, just think about it, how many billions of different plastic toys are there.  Because of this, buyers will not negotiate about their prices, making the price that factories can sell for virtually fixed.  To compensate for this, factories resort to lowering cost, as explained above, to make a bigger profit margin.  This, in turn, means, in many cases, cheap labor, not just cheap labor, but cheap child labor.  It is a well known fact amongst many of the workshop or factory owners in China that the cheapest kind of labor is child labor[2].  To be more exact, child laborers in China get paid an average 3.5 Yuan an hour, which is the equivalent to US$050 an hour.  But the beauty of child laborers to factory owners doesn’t stop there,

not only do they work at a cheap price, but they work for long hours as well.  It is estimated that these child laborers work up to 16 hours a day, set at the very least of 10 hours a day

[3].  This creates a prime opportunity for many business to start up factories, not only local factories either.  In recent reports, it has been speculated that companies as big as Coca-Cola are guilty of using such labor in their factories

[4].  The fact that companies as big as Coca-Cola could possibly be guilty of such things proves in itself how tempting it is to use such cheap labor in businesses.  From data like this, the question of why and how labor like this happens surfaces. 

            According to Chinese labor laws, it is illegal for children under the ages of 16 to be working.  However, according to reports by Reuters, children as young as the ages between seven and nine were reported as being sold by factory owners, with the average being around 13 and 15 years of age, all under the legal age.  To show the extent to the problem, out of “the 10 million children (under the age of 16) out of school, over 5 million are working in factories[5].”  These 5 million people are simply the reported ones, one of the major risks in the child trading business is keeping it a secret.  The number reported, are obviously the ones that failed at doing so, those still in production have not been caught, and are still in production, deflating the number drastically.  From the data, it is clear to say that the labor law for children is not doing its job, as there is still a hefty part of the child population in China working.  But why is this? As child labor becomes a more prevalent issue, many in China are aware of the risks that comes with working in the factories, yet children are still sold off to workshops and factories.  The methods as to which a child can get caught up in laboring vary quite drastically; in some cases, parents sell of their children to help pay the bills, in others, children are literally taken off the street by force and forced into laboring in either China or foreign countries

[6].  The former, comes from the primary case that the parents cannot afford the cost of raising a child, let alone send the child to school, so instead of leaving the child at home or on the farm, they send the child off to try and earn a living in the factories.  Although the conditions of the factories is well known to the parents, and in many cases the child, the sacrifice is worth it, as any form of money is needed at the time.  By examining this problem, the root of the problem can be coined to a number of things, one of which being the growing cost of education in China.  As China begins to evolve, the cost of schooling rises, as parts of China, the major parts, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong begin to prosper, effectively increasing the cost of things throughout China.  However, the economic wealth that China is experiencing is not well spread throughout, and whilst the cost of things increases and wages increase in certain parts of China, there are other areas in China where things remain the same, these areas are the ones susceptible to juvenile labor.  These areas, although the areas that keep food on the table of hundreds of millions of Chinese, suffer the most.

            The issue of juvenile labor has been a problem throughout China for decades on end, although many actions have been taken to reduce and obliterate child labor, it still continues to grow annually, and become a prosperous business for those who own it.  To tackle this problem, the root of the problem must be addressed, that includes the things that make this business viable, and keep the children an option for cheap labor.  Such problems as the education cost in China and the cost of living in China both contribute to the growing problem that is child labor.  Until these problems are fixed, the root of the issue, this problem will continue to grow.

Works Cited

“A Refutation of the Argument that China’s Labor Contract Law Hurts the Working Class.” China Labor Watch 13 Feb 2009 Web.27 Apr 2009. <http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/2009213chinalaborcontractlaw.htm>.

“As China’s Economy Grows, So does China’s Child Labour Problem.” China Labor Bulletin. China Labour Bulletin. 24 Apr 2009 <http://www.china-labour.org.hk/en/node/15889>.

Barboza, David. “China Says Abusive Child Labor Ring Is Exposed.” The New York Times 01 May 2008 Web.24 Apr 2009. <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/world/asia/01china.html>.

Bezlova, Antoaneta. “The Chinese are not happy.” Asia Times 23 Apr 2009 Web.24 Apr 2009. <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KD23Ad02.html>.

“Child Labor Prevention Project.” China Labor Watch 04 Feb 2009 Web.24 Apr 2009. <http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/20090204childlaborproject.htm>.

“China.” United States Department of Labor. 27 Apr 2009. United States Department of Labor. 27 Apr 2009 <http://www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/sweat/china.htm>.

Grau, Megan. “Child Slave Labor in China.” HIS Child Slave Labor May 2005 Web.24 Apr 2009. <http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=57>.

“Hundreds of children ‘trafficked’.” BBC News 24 Apr 2009 1. Web.24 Apr 2009. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8017372.stm>.

McCabe, Aileen. “China takes mantel as world’s biggest auto market..” Canada.com 23 Apr 2009 1. Web.23 Apr 2009. <http://www.canda.com/China+takes+world+biggest+auto+market/1526781/story.html>.

Wilkins, Thomas. “Coca-Cola Emphatically Denies Human Rights Violation in Its China Businesses.” China Stakes 24 Apr 2009 Web.23 Apr 2009. <http://www.chinastakes.com/Article.aspx?id=1161>.