Communism comes to China?

A recent strike in China is unexpectedly reported as front page news in China's state-controlled media. Thousands of workers from Honda's factories are now on strike for higher wages. The factories, perhaps 4 of them, are then forced to halt production. Two leaders of this strike were fired by Honda, only to burn the fires among the workers.

China, as a communism country, does not really guarantee its citizens the rights of strike. Strike was considered as a very 'unharmony' component of this fragile society. They are not allowed to appear on media. The organisers of strikes were often questioned or even arrested by the police. A famous case was a proposed Taxi driver strike. The organiser was located by the police through an online IM software and then sent to jail.

However this time, the state media put the strike of Honda factories workers on the front pages, on the top of Korean crisis and chain-subsiding in Foxconn. The report said Chinese workers earn only 1/50 of their Japanese colleagues in Honda's factories, only are able to live on basic standards.

The salary discrimination in China has been a long unwritten rule among foreign-owned companies. Employees holding foreign passports or residencies generally earn more than Chinese local employees and enjoy more privileges. One explanation of this phenomenon is those foreign employees having higher basic salary rates in their home countries. This may not be a reason, but states the truth. Legal minimum wage in China is so low that it can barely cover basic living expenses. The high inflation rate in China brings a tougher life for those living on basic wages.

And the workers union in China is only a department distributing free condoms (implementing one child policy) and movie tickets (propaganda). They are usually controlled by either government or even employers. It does not stand for the interest of workers, not to mention in salary bargaining. The workers have no position in negotiating their pay. Because they are always find people willing to do the same work with less wage demand.

That's the secret of China's export-leading economy. That's why people in western countries can buy cheap Made in China goods.

However the era of cheap labour in China is about to come to an end, at least in South China. Governments are more strict about regulations of minimal wages, which is increasing more frequently than before. People are more aware their rights and know how to ask for it. So today, they are on strike. Perhaps this is how communism comes to China, for real, this time.

A factory with 12 lives

A cat will die after losing its 9 lives. How many lives does a factory have?

2010, Foxconn's factory in Shenzhen, China, witnessed 12 of its employees jumping off their high-rise dormitory buildings to finish their lives.

Foxconn, aka Hon Hai, is a Taiwanese-owned group having some 800,000 employees. It is owned by a Taiwanese tycoon Gou Tai-Ming (郭台銘). The group operates several manufacturing factories in China, being suppliers for international customers like Apple.


Troubled by accuses of its abusive employment practices, Foxconn is still a popular employer among young workers in South China. It has higher pay rates than most of its counterparts and provides after-hour work opportunities for those who want extra money. They have clean dormitories, canteens, etc. In fact, the living area of the factory is like a community.


Except people barely know each other. They have no time to socialize. People working in Foxconn complain about they have no chance to even speak to their roommates, who may work on different shifts. No such things as clubs or associations among workers in Foxconn exists.


The suicide cases in Foxconn shocked China. Gou believed there was such curse to doom his factory. He was about to invite some Buddhist monks to prey for the factory, before more cases followed up. The executive board of Foxconn then implemented other measures to stop more people from suicide, such as opening hotlines to solve physiological pressures of its employers, delivering physiological lectures, etc. And then more cases happened.

26 May 2010, Gou went to the factory himself and delivered a speech to the workers. He apologized for everything happened in his factory and promised no one will be forced to work extra hours.


Less than 12 hours after the speech, a young man jumped off and died in Foxconn.

Volunteer Teacher Forced to Leave China

Eckart Loewe, or better known as his Chinese name, 卢安克, is a German volunteer teacher in remote South China country village. Having been teaching in China for almost 10 years, he was interviewed by the Chinese state-owned CCTV and became known to the public. The people in China admired his contributions to the education of kids in villages and described him as a hero of the nation. He can speak fluent Mandarin, which is described ‘like poem’ by some people. He operated a blog in Chinese focusing the Education in China and problems of ‘left behind children’, rural kids whose parents migrate to city to make money.


However Mr Loewe is forced to leave China due to his visa expiry soon. China has very strict immigration laws. It issues visa with short stay length and renew times limitation. Mr Loewe obtained his visa four years ago. Now he is not able to renew or obtain a new visa onshore, which means he has to arrange his visa offshore, perhaps in Germany. He also tried to apply for a Chinese citizenship but failed. China only allows naturalization when a person makes ‘special contribution’ to China or has close relatives as Chinese citizens. Apparently the government was not convinced that what Mr Loewe did was a ‘special contribution’ to the whole nation. Mr Loewe was forced to remove all the entries from his blog and leave a message stating that he is neither a credentialed teacher nor a volunteer.

The Chinese Internet community has a very strong reaction toward this news. The story was interpreted as; Mr Loewe’s blog touched a sensitive issue in China (left behind children) and annoyed the authority so he was forced to leave. People blame the government for this decision and wrote hundreds of articles online to criticise the government. Then these articles were shared on SNS websites so more people believed it was the government which to blame. (Click here)

I admire what Mr Loewe did to the Chinese kids and his contribution to local community. However I believe this time it is not the government which should be blamed. The immigration law is very clear about visas and citizenships. The government has no position to change or break the law just to appeal some interest of some people. (However I believe the law should be modified under proper procedures.) Moreover, the government should regulate the education system by issuing credentials to qualified teachers. Kids in primary school should not be taught by teachers without credentials. In this case, Mr Loewe is not holding any form of credential which allows him to teach in China. His teaching activities have breached the law and regulations.

Can you image a Chinese citizen coming to Australia, volunteer for the community for four years without any kind of certificates, and then asked for a citizenship? Go home. Out of question. Then why should people blame Chinese government for doing same things?

It should be pointed out, that Chinese government should put more money into education system. Moreover, the whole exam-directed system should be changed. I think they are why people are so angry in Mr Loewe’s case. Only by achieving those, kids in rural communities can enjoy the same rights with kids in the city.