Weekender -- The Reasons behind '50 Reasons'

Perhaps a country’s ability to take a take a punch, shrug off perceived insults and face up to criticism squarely is one of the first signs that a nation had achieved maturity and its people their place at the table of great nations.

Not yet China.

Good fortune, and a marvellous relationship with the English books editor at Random House Kodansha in Tokyo was the reason ‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never be Great’ was first published in Japan, a country still felt by most Chinese as its greatest enemy.

To actually manufacture an insult to the motherland and the people of China by intentionally publishing our work first in Japan is far beyond our ability and actually bestows upon us a deviousness that is – well – insulting.

We have joined rather good company. Companies such as Starbucks, Deloitte Touche, Toyota and many others have all been tarred with the ‘insulters of China’ brush of shame, usually applied by the government, but sometimes also fostered by highly educated Chinese experts who should have better things to do.

Why?

The authors of ‘Fault Lines On The Face of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great,’ David Marriott and Karl Lacroix, feel the answer harkens back to the opening statement of this piece.

Maturity and subsequent greatness -- both of which China has yet to achieve.

Our book does not attack China. Our book is a warning cry to the Chinese people that failure to achieve greatness is the most likely possibility IF the motherland fails to open its eyes, ears, and heart to its problems....now.

The book details 50. We discovered dozens more. China plays a dangerous game turning one eye towards its obvious successes, while keeping the other eye blind to its failures.

At fault is certainly the government, but more so the very people, the citizens who readily perceive supposed insults but fail to recognize dangerous decay within their society. The Communist Government builds a paper tiger while what the people of China should demand and well-deserve is a real blood and guts dragon.

‘Things are getting better’ or ‘things are changing’ are the standard phrases that must be included within every ‘critical’ article published in the Western Press. Why? Balance. The authors of such articles and indeed the journals publishing them want to be seen as balanced, fair, and moderating.

In FAULT LINES there is no balance. No apologies. No self appointed moderation. In FAULT LINES there are just problems, difficulties, 50 failures that need attention desperately. The authors feel ‘balance’ is a wasted journalistic emotion.

But for this reason the authors have yet to capture an English publishing contract. Western editors who have zero China experience, but an abundance of balancing ability claim it is ‘too critical.’ Their attitude is that the authors’ combined 25 years of China life means nothing, without ‘balance’

For the authors, however, our experience means a unique ability to define, illustrate and detail at least 50 faults within China today, faults that run concurrently, destructively holding back the greatest society to ever have a chance to join man’s march into the future.

For the authors David Marriott and Karl Lacroix, our attitude means loving China enough to shout out a warning, to try to illustrate the plain facts and to tell the truth. The truth as we know it, without false ‘balance.’

While we did write the book with a Western audience in mind, we are very keen that Chinese people should be able to read it too. It would be totally wrong to say we wrote the book for Western people but not for Chinese people.

One of the reasons we have been using the ‘ChinaBounder’ blog as a vehicle to discuss our book is to help generate awareness of it among a wider audience. But we are also very keen that Chinese people should be able to get an idea of the topic of the book. There is no way ‘Fault Lines’ could ever be published in China, and this is our only route to raising the issues we discuss with the people of China.

We are happy to discuss our book with anyone who wishes to comment at 50faultlines@gmail.com

Writing the book took over one year, not including thousands of hours of research and hundreds of interviews, ‘Fault Lines’ was carefully and meticulously researched, written and footnoted.

We have made a great deal of use of Chinese media sources. Though the Chinese media is carefully controlled by the government, there is a still a huge amount of valuable information to be gained from it – not just in plentiful facts and figures, but also in attitudes, assumptions and beliefs about what China ‘is.’

We hoped to avoid the charge that we were relying on ‘biased’ Western data and opinion sources by proving each of the 50 Faults with information gleaned from Chinese citizens and media sources. However, for topics such as Tibet and Xinjiang, we did make wider use of international sources, since there is simply no objective reporting on these issues in China.

Currently we are working through ideas for several fact-based novels. All our China themed work must be thoroughly researched, whether fiction or non-fiction. Only the ChinaBounder character takes liberties with reality, but even behind his remarks lurks an element of truth often ignored by the character’s detractors.

Black comedy, satire and risqué humour is not allowed within China when directed towards government leaders and institutions. Sadly most Chinese readers miss the point when trying to digest the comments made on the infamous blog. In more open and perhaps democratic societies, political satire is seen as a safety valve, a way for citizens to jab politicians, and themselves in the ribs to say ‘Hey! Don’t forget, we are watching you.’

Within the book’s title, ‘Fault Lines On The Face of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great,’ there is a concession, at least within the Japanese edition. We anguished for weeks over the two words ‘may’ and ‘will.’ The word ‘will’ seemed much more negative, more certain and certainly too strongly opinionated against the future. The word ‘will’ seemed to doom China.

In the end we chose the word ‘may’ simply because our work ‘Fault Lines On The Face of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ is a warning, and when giving notice to a people and a country there must be hope.

The last chapter or ‘reason’, number 50, is the most important for China to pay heed to. Entitled ‘The Voice of China’ we ask for the reason that China will give for its existence to the rest of the world. How will China motivate the world? Another great consumer society, preyed upon by megacorporations is not needed. Nor is a ‘harmonious’ society dictated to on a daily basis by an archaic political system.

We ask China to show the world the way into the future, for surely we and the rest of the world have yet to find an answer. Then China will not only be great - it will be the greatest nation of all time

Karl Lacroix Biography:

Karl Lacroix’s arrival in China in the summer of 1992 was for him a dream come true.

Intoxicated as a young boy on the spirit of adventure, Karl found the warmth of the muggy night air of Shanghai filled his need for a ‘new’ land.

In the early nineties, indeed China was the new ‘promised land.’

Karl’s family, directed by the Canadian army, had pulled up stakes and moved across oceans many times, instilling within Karl at a young age a sense of wanderlust that only China has really satiated. An English-born mother and an American-born father gave impetus to a sense of internationalism that formed his character.

Writing came to Karl at an early age, acting as a cub reporter for a local city newspaper in Ontario, Canada. Words became important, not because they were rewarded, but because they generated human reaction.

Now in his late 50s, Karl’s power of observation and experience , combined with a liberal viewpoint, has directed him to voice his ‘protest’ over China’s failure to seek a higher calling than that of being the largest consumer market in the history of the world.

Karl Lacroix expects to live out his life in the most fascinating and compelling area of the world - Asia.


David Marriott Biography:

David Marriott is a collector of fine wines and a voracious reader of books that never leave once they are acquired. The occasional bottle of wine however, disappears without remorse, its preservation within the collection be damned.

His attendance at Oxbridge almost convinced him that a life of academia was his until an opportunity arose that could not be denied – China.

Working as an editor, developing 'free journalism' within a state owned newspaper, for two years David found that in China 'free' means exactly what the government wants it to mean.

Pursuing the family journalism heritage gave David a sense of purpose which was unfortunately limited by rules, regulations and interpretations that were less than logical.

A chance encounter and a quick discussion of a book project provided a different direction and a 'Brotherhood of China' relationship with Karl Lacroix.

David, now in his late thirties, is an avid linguist and has managed to learn to speak, read and write enough Chinese to avert the potentially disastrous situations both Karl and David seem to find themselves occasionally.

David Marriott's life will continue within Asia, so deep has the influence of his present life in China been. The Brotherhood of China has tales to reveal and truths to expose on a journey that will continue book after book.


-The comments and material above have been prepared by Karl Lacroix.

Please feel free to contact us with any more questions or expansions on the ideas that have presented.

Reason Number 30 - The Fallibility of Chinese Characters

‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ - Excerpt 57
“The Chinese definition of literacy is the ability to read and write at least 1500 Chinese characters. In 1949, when ‘New China’ was founded, the illiteracy rate was more than 80%. By 1992, 22.3% of adults in China were illiterate. Ten years later, that proportion had dropped to 8.72%.

While 8.72% seems relatively small, that translates into a total of 85 million illiterate people in China at the beginning of this century. Twenty million of them were between the age of 15 and 50, with 70% of the total number of illiterate people being women.

Despite China’s huge recent economic expansion and the country’s trillion-dollar plus foreign reserves, the total amount of money allocated per year since 2000 to fight and eliminate illiteracy among 85 million people was just eight million yuan (US$1.03 million). Education was worth a paltry 0.07 yuan per person, an amount that would certainly not buy a book of lessons, nor even a pencil or one single sheet of paper to write on.

Small wonder then that by 2007 the number of illiterate people had not dropped -- it had risen. Since official figures were released after China’s last census in 2000, giving a base of 85 million illiterate people, China has experienced an increase in illiteracy equal to the entire population of Canada -- 30 million people – becoming unable to read or write. Today, 116 million people are unable to meet China’s definition of literacy.”

Think about that statistic carefully. Since 2000, there has been an increase in illiteracy in China of thirty million people. China, with its vast wealth and its billions to waste on Olympics and armies and men in space. Can’t even fix the most basic, fundamental problems.

What does that say about the ‘progress’ of China?

‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ - Excerpt 58
“Although not all would do so, each and every citizen of these 116 million people is denied the opportunity to unleash their potential, both for self and country, simply through the malaise of illiteracy. In order to put the size of these figures into perspective, in the year 2000, 11.3% of all illiterate people on the planet lived in China. Incredibly, by 2005, that total had risen to 15%.

A full 40% of Chinese people cannot speak Mandarin and, once again, it is the countryside population rather than the city elite who suffer. The isolating factor of speaking only your own dialect in a country of 1.3 billion people fractures the very nationhood of China. This mosaic of language prevents the government from giving a clear message of unity to all citizens. In addition, the inability to speak a common language, combined with the inability to read and write, dooms China’s poor citizens to a life of very few opportunities.”

Reason Number 29 - Blue China Crime

‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ - Excerpt 55
"Shanghai is remarkably safe. The Shanghainese are still the ‘special ones’ of China. They still get the added respect from criminal elements from other parts of China that affords them an additional layer of protection, something the folks in booming cities like Shenzhen across from Hong Kong no longer have. In Shenzhen if they want your purse but you hang onto it too tightly, they might just cut your arm off.

But even as residents here in Shanghai for over 20 years, the authors have not been touched by it, or even really seen it. Sure, a pick pocketed wallet and a pinched mobile, both lost more from carelessness than to an exercise of someone’s criminal ability. But real crime? Best to watch the late night local TV news to see that.

But the bad guys are coming sure enough. And the young ones are in training.

Blue (collar) China Crime forms the most fearful element of the 4th Army of Instability. In the end, the White and Red elements of the 4th Army may cause more financial long term harm, but it is the physical nature of the Blue Army that paralyzes most people with fear."

Shanghai is indeed a point of relative calm in China. Rich city, there is less of the desperate crime of the provinces. Closest I ever came to crime was getting my pocket picked, and pretty ineptly at that. I was with Gloria, taking her to the Shanghai railway station to see her off on her journey back home at Lunar New Year. The crowds were intense, as always, but I was paying a modicum of attention and I felt a hand slide into my pocket. I grabbed that hand, and with it a youngish boy of 14 or 15 or so. And, having caught him, had little idea of what to do with him. But Gloria was in a hurry to get her train, and urged me to let him go. That’s what I’d have done anyhow, I guess, for I would not leave him to the care of the coppers and, besides, I am sure he had few options but to be a pickpocket, China being what it is.

But often I think if China had the crazy level of gun ownership of the United States, Shanghai crime would be a different story. You only have to look at the city’s drivers to see that – the anger, the mad, enraged, passionate anger that most all drivers show a dozen times a day is evidence enough; these are guys who, armed, would leap from their cars and shoot each other dead over the most trivial incident.

‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ - Excerpt 56
"China, a country that often professes its modesty, its calmness, has its own demons to slay. Rapidly following the path of developed countries, China’s list of serial and mass killers grows ominously.

In southwestern Guizhou Province in November 2006, a magistrate, Wen Jiangang, his wife, his son, his sister-in-law, his mother-in-law and even his nursery maid were all murdered. Police rapidly arrested 42-year-old Cao Hui, announcing he had murdered Wen and his family purely for money. Yet other swirling rumors suggested that since Wen had been in charge of closing down illegal mines in the area, it might have been resentful mine owners who arranged his killing. The same month that Wen was killed also saw the murder of a restaurant owner and three of his relatives in Dongguan city in Guangdong Province.

The month after, December 2006, saw the murder of a family of five in southern Guangdong Province’s Foshan city. Also in December 2006, another magistrate, Chen Yiming, was murdered along with his wife, seven-year-old grandson and housemaid in northwest Gansu Province. Another family of six was murdered in southern Guangdong Province in May 2007. After taking the contents of the safe the burglars killed everyone present, including four children, the youngest of whom was four years old.

According to Ministry of Public Security spokesman Yu Xinmin, mass killings in 2006 were 63% lower than in 2005. In the same report, a professor at the Chinese People’s Public Security University, Li Meijin, said that 'In a big country such as China, 10 mass murders a year is relatively low.'

With the acceptance of such figures, does this mean that mass-murder is a tradition in China?"

Reason Number 28 - A Traditional Feast of Cruelty

‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ - Excerpt 53
“Cruelty to animals has a long history in China. ‘Rich people in ancient times used to put live ducks onto hot iron plates and the ducks end up dancing themselves to death. The diners then eat the meat on the ducks’ feet because it was said to be much more delicious than the meat of ducks cooked in the ordinary way’ said media.

China has many cruelly-prepared dishes. One is called ‘the three squeaks.’ This dish consists of live baby mice, and its name comes from the fact they squeak first when picked up by the diner’s chopsticks, second when dipped in sauce, and third when placed in the mouth and bitten.

Media also noted that while some people were kinder to animals, this could ‘stem from a fear of being punished if animals are treated badly’ because ‘Buddhism encourages people not to eat animals since … after death, people may become animals themselves.’ It is fear of religious retribution that may dictate positive treatment of animals rather than the natural expression of kindness itself."

Among the few people still bothering to comment on this blog there’s a bit of a debate going on about the merits of TCM – traditional Chinese medicine.

As a rationalist I no more believe in most of TCM than I believe in other equally preposterous fairy tales such as Jesus and Allah. Sure, TCM has its testable benefits, but only insofar as its shamanistic recipes coincide with the proven benefits of many types of plant. The bulk of it is sheer nonsense, from yin and yang to acupuncture.

This is not to deny it can be effective – for what TCM most does is soothe the mind of those who believe in it – and if the mind is convinced, the body often can be. That’s why there is such a vast army of idiots who believe in homeopathy and crystal healing and aromatherapy and so on.

But these ‘medicines’ are nothing more than placebos – in the case of acupuncture, for example, an experiment last year found that “There was no statistically significant difference between proper, genuine acupuncture and fake, ‘bung a needle in, anywhere you fancy, with a bit of theatrical ceremony’ acupuncture.”

The problem with TCM is that it sees nature as an allegory. It imposes a very human interpretation on the world, and suggests that the way ‘we’ see the world is how the world really is. In short – the essence, the very theory and core of TCM is ignorant and arrogant.

Take the case of tiger bone. Tiger bone – indeed all parts of the tiger – are highly prized by TCM since they are held to endow great strength on those who ingest them. This is because, from a human perspective, the tiger is a signifier of power and prowess; it is an animal of grace, speed and deadliness.

TCM sees the tiger as an answer; in fact it is just an equation. The tiger is made out of the same stuff as any other animal, and it is the inescapable Darwinian response to its environment. It is merely a staging post in the grand flow of evolution. But TCM views it as a finished, almost designed product; TCM sees it as an embodiment rather than a process.

But nature is not an allegory; eating the tiger does not make us strong any more than eating the mole makes us miners. To see animals as signifiers is to misunderstand nature and our place in it. And that is why TCM has done so much damage to the natural world, driving the tiger and the rhino close to extinction. It is also why China’s attitude to the animal world (all parts of it save small fluffy dogs) is so monstrously cruel, stuck back where the West was in the age of bear-baiting and cock fights.

‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ - Excerpt 54
“China does have laws to protect its endangered species, though like so many laws in the country they carry little judiciary weight, the result of which leaves rare animals hunted for food in an age of grocery stores and supermarkets.

A nationwide campaign called Spring Thunder in 2003 saw Chinese police inspect nearly 16,000 animal fairs and 67,800 hotels and restaurants across the county. During the inspection, which lasted just nine days, 838,500 endangered animals were confiscated, saved from China’s kitchens. About 45,000 of them were wildlife with first-class state protection.

In 2007, demand for wild and exotic animals on the dinner table was still high. Thirteen people were sentenced to up to 14 years in prison after they were found guilty of illegally buying and selling thousands of state-protected wild animals in the largest wild animal trade case the country had seen, said media. One man, Ma Weihu, illegally bought about 900 owls, a Grade-II state protected animal, to sell to restaurants in southern Guangdong Province.

While China’s laws on endangered species are clearly ineffectual, the country also does not have a single law ruling against animal cruelty. None. ‘(Animal abuse) cannot be tackled with public opinion or moral pressure, it’s time for legislation,’ said Mang Ping, assistant professor with the Central Socialist Academy, and a long-time advocate for animal rights in China.”

Reason Number 27 - The Chinese ‘Gold’ Push

‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ - Excerpt 51
“Coming from countries like Canada and Britain, the authors have the ability to appreciate coming second or third, even the necessity of it. There is true glory in silver and bronze.

Not if you are a citizen of China. Unless you achieve gold medal ranking, your accomplishments will disappear along with hundreds of thousands of other second and third place finishers. On Chinese television, if you win on a live broadcast, you are certain to be replayed over and over. If you or your team loses, a terse three sentences on the evening’s sports program will be all the glory you will receive.

An example of the obsession with coming first was seen after the 2004 Athens Olympics, when only gold-medal winners from mainland China were allowed the grace of celebrating their achievements in front of politicians and the public in Hong Kong. Silver and bronze medal winners had to be content with the warmth of family congratulations at home, out of the limelight. Only mere fractions of distance and milliseconds of time separate winners from losers. But in China the gulf between winners and loser is physical, spiritual, and huge.”

‘…the ability to appreciate coming second or third’ – or perhaps even fourth, which is where ‘we,’ the British, came in the Olympics. ‘We’ are of course celebrating, since though we had hoped to retain the third place slot we had held for much of the games, we were content to end up fourth. Best result in a century and so on.

But what is ‘we’? I am British, and I do feel a certain sense of pleasure that Britain has done so well at the Olympics. And I could get pugnacious about it, could point out that with ‘our’ population base, being 60 million or so, we won one gold per 3.15 million people, and that China, with its base of 1.6 billion, won one gold per 31 million. Does that make Britain ten times better than China?

Yet in the end I cannot really feel much sense of personal pride. I honor the achievement of the British athletes, just like I honor the victories of the Chinese athletes. But it does not really have anything to say about what Britain is, or how the world should view the nation. These victories are ultimately just personal events.

The cult of personal victory is fine; but the idea of national victory is dangerous and threatening. And it leads to great sacrifices, as so many of China’s almost-made-it athletes know. The pressure to win, to win gold, finally does more harm than good.

‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ - Excerpt 52
“For China, coming first in major international competitions is almost a matter of life and death, and is comparable to a major military campaign. Liu Peng, President of the Chinese Olympic Committee, said in early 2007 that “Battle preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games are in a grave state. To the outside, we must display humble troops and keep a low profile, but inwardly we must plant grand ambition to scale great heights, and there can be absolutely no slackening.” Would words of actual war be any less bombastic? Would the call to arms be any less spiritually demanding?

The pursuit of titles is so dominant that it restricts the personal freedom of athletes. In late 2006 Liu Peng announced ‘In order to prepare for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, our country’s athletes, including celebrity athletes, are banned from participating in all kinds of social activities.’ In typical Chinese fashion, what was meant by “social activities” was not specified. And while media suggested the ruling was primarily aimed at sports stars who gave commercial endorsements to products, the vaguely worded nature of the statement meant it could be used to control athletes in the widest possible range of ways.

In China, trying counts for very little. All that matters is success, and the concept of the ‘noble failure’ is virtually non-existent. The ‘success at all costs’ attitude is at the root of many other social phenomena observable in China today. It is the reason behind the stock market frenzy, and the reason behind the fact that manufacturers are willing to sell low quality or dangerous goods just so that they can close the deal. It underlies China’s conspicuous consumption, and it explains why students are expected to seek financial success over personal satisfaction – and why the student who wants to be an artist or musician faces social derision.”

Reason Number 26 - The Migrant School of Revolution

‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ - Excerpt 49
“China’s migrants have built the factories and office blocks that support the country’s rise to economic supremacy. They have built roads, rail, docks and airports that allow it to import and transport the millions of tons of raw ingredients it needs and export the billions of dollars of finished goods it produces. And most of this has been done by sweat and muscle power rather than by hi-tech machinery. Spade and sinew are the most common sights on China’s construction projects, often without labor-saving hydraulic equipment.

China’s migrants also work in the kitchens of the cities, providing meals for socialites and office workers that they could not themselves afford. They clean the houses of the richer city elite. Migrants are available for any job beneath the social and economic standard of the city’s better-educated residents.

Life has always been hard for such people in China – so much so that their way of existence has entered the very language. The English word ‘coolie’ is taken from the Chinese words ‘ku li,’ meaning ‘bitter strength,’ a testament to how many centuries China’s poor have labored for China’s rich. Such language and such attitudes reinforce the ostracization of these city-builders to a point where they feel they live in one country while building another.

Their numbers continue to grow, and as they come to the clear realization that they will never share in the good life enjoyed by the millions of city dwellers, China’s migrant workers will form the 3rd Army of Instability.”

So, goodbye to the Olympics for another four years. It was about what I expected – a mix of glitzy show, Chinese powerhouse athlete success, and lies and dissimulation.

The last two weeks cost the Chinese people more than forty billion US dollars. Was it worth it, guys, when so many of your nation still struggle to attain even the most basic necessities of life?

Yeah, a pretty stunning medal tally. Soon as China got the games I knew they’d get the most medals. No two ways about it – all those years to round up promising young children and put them in the concentration camps of modern Chinese sport. For China’s athletes, life is a regime of the most arduous physical exercise, with no love, no care, no education. There is just one goal – to be the best. If you’re not the best you’re cast aside like trash. Doesn’t matter what you’ve achieved – fail, and you’re fucked. Look at Liu Xiang. Where was he in the closing ceremony? Where was the respect and honor for him?

I admire and respect China’s athletes. They are glorious. But the world should know that the athletes who performed so wonderfully over the course of the games are just a tiny layer on top of a huge mound of sacrificed bodies, the bodies of the tens and tens of thousands who did not make the grade -- who gave everything and got nothing.

That’s how it is in China, from the children to the aged. From the young girl who practiced to sing in the opening ceremony, tossed aside because she was not cute enough, to the 200 million migrant workers who face contempt and hardship every single day, the message China gives is clear -- Be perfect or fuck off.

China calls itself a socialist country. And the impulse behind socialism – the sense of equality – is indeed noble. But China is a more rapacious and brutal nation than any capitalist country on the planet. Greed and selfishness, that’s the core of life in China today. And so the ‘socialist’ claim is a monstrous crock of bullshit.

But what is to be expected from China when the very name of the nation is a lie?

China – ‘The People’s Republic of China’ – as if the people owned anything – as if they were in charge! China is run by the crooks and thieves of the party and the few millions of citizens who have managed to make some money trading on the misery of the poor.

Bring on the uprising of the third army, that’s what I say.

‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ - Excerpt 50
“A major survey undertaken by China’s Ministry of Labor and Social Security, which covered 2.84 million migrant workers across 19,000 enterprises in 40 cities, found that 79.2% of workers listed their greatest concern as income and nearly 40% talked about lack of social insurance. Just over 25% said unpaid wages were a major concern. Of those who had not been paid on time, said the survey (without giving the precise number of unpaid workers) the average amount owed was 2,100 yuan (US$270).

Regardless of the lack of a precise number of unpaid workers, fully one in four migrant workers has not been paid, fears they will not be paid, or has reservations about the truth behind the company that they work for and the ability of the government to enforce the retrieval of the funds should they be withheld.

Article 36 of China’s 1995 Labor Law says “The State shall practice a working hour system wherein laborers shall work for no more than eight hours a day and no more than 44 hours a week on the average.” Such words indicate a labor utopia which is not to this day enjoyed by any migrant. A survey by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in June 2007 found that most migrant workers received no payment for overtime, and that two thirds of them had no opportunity to negotiate wages. It also found that more than 30% of migrant workers injured in industrial accidents received absolutely no compensation.”