Suicides, strikes, and labor unrest in China

Sinica Podcast

Kaiser Kuo

Currentaffairs, Business, News, China Politics, Shenzhen, Chinese, Chongqing, China News, Politics, China, Culture, Sichuan, Hangzhou, Beijing, International Relations, China Economy, Chengdu, Film, Shanghai, Guangzhou

4.7 • 710 Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2010

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A spate of suicides leaves ten dead at the Shenzhen campus of Foxconn, the giant electronics manufacturer that makes many of the world's most popular consumer electronics. A rare strike paralyzes production at Honda Motors, shutting down all of the company's manufacturing lines in the country. In response, both companies offer substantial concessions to workers, causing many to ask if this marks the end of China's reign as the low-cost "workshop to the world"? This week on Sinica, host Kaiser Kuo welcomes Kathleen McLaughlin, a prolific reporter for the Bureau of National Affairs and Global Post who has written extensively on electronics manufacturing trends in China. We're also joined by Jonathan Watts, Beijing-based correspondent for The Guardian, who is just back from a visit to the massive Foxconn facility in Shenzhen. Also with us is Danwei founder Jeremy Goldkorn. We look at the problems afflicting labor in China: are these simply the result of poor working conditions, or is there more at work here? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the Cynica podcast, a weekly discussion of current affairs in China coming here from Beijing.
0:14.6	I'm your host, Kaiser Guo.
0:16.6	A tragic spate of suicides at electronics manufacturing giant Foxcon in Shenzhen.
0:21.4	A rare strike by workers at a Honda factory in Foshan.
0:24.9	Today on Seneca, we're going to talk about the state of labor in China,
0:28.5	looking at the suicides and the strike,
0:30.6	and asking whether these things are indicative of something deeper.
0:34.0	We're joined today by Bureau of National Affairs correspondent
0:36.9	and prolific freelance journalist Kathleen McLaughlin.
0:39.3	Kathleen, welcome to Cynica.
0:41.3	Hi, Kaiser. Nice to be here.
0:42.3	Also joining us this week is Jonathan Watts, a Beijing-based correspondent for The Guardian,
0:47.3	and author of the forthcoming book, When a Billion Chinese Jump, which I assure you has nothing to do with the Foxcon's suicide.
0:53.3	That's right.
0:54.4	Hi.
0:56.0	Can you share with us really quickly?
0:57.4	What's the upshot of the book?
1:05.6	The book is basically about what happens when 250 years of industrial development runs into environmental, social, and other kinds of walls.
1:09.5	Actually, you're now technically the environmental correspondent for Asia for the Guardian.
1:09.8	Is that right? That's right, yeah. And we actually look forward to having Jonathan on with Alex Wong from the National Resources
1:14.7	Defense Council to talk about environmental issues in China in a forthcoming podcast.
1:19.7	Finally, with us, of course, we have the inimitable Jeremy Goldcorn, the man behind the marvelous blog
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Kaiser Kuo, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Kaiser Kuo and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.