Economic data points to recovery but China’s workers are yet to benefit

Economic data points to recovery but China’s workers are yet to benefit

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15 July, 2015

China’s economic growth appears to be stabilizing, in line with government expectations, but there is little evidence that conditions for workers in China’s troubled industries are improving.

China’s GDP grew at exactly 7.0 percent (year-on-year) in the second quarter of 2015, with the strongest growth seen in the service sector. Industrial output meanwhile rebounded to 6.8 percent in June, its fastest rate in four months.

However, initial indications in July are that many industries are still struggling and that it is the workers who are feeling the biggest impact. Of the 67 strikes and worker protests recorded on China Labour Bulletin’s Strike Map in the first 12 days of this month 48 (72 percent) were directly related to the non-payment of wages.

On just one day, 2 July, there were protests over wage arrears by more than 1,000 workers at a state-owned textile plant in Dezhou, iron workers in Qinghuangdao, employees at a mining and smelting company in Linyi, and theme park employees in Nanchang, as well as demonstrations by construction workers in Nanchang, Chengdu and Mianyang.

Textile workers in Dezhou, Shandong, block the streets in a 2 July protest over wage arrears

Many other recent protests were related to similar issues, such as low wages, non-payment of social security etc. For example, around 1,700 coal miners in Jining, Shandong, went out on strike on Monday 13 July over pay cuts.

These results are very much in line with the picture from the first half of the year when strikes and protests were dominated by workers in the construction and manufacturing industries demanding payment of wages in arrears. See CLB’s strike summaries for the first quarter and second quarter of 2015 for more details.

Despite some signs of economic recovery in China, it seems clear that worker unrest will continue to be the norm for the near future at least as businesses in many sectors struggle to stay afloat and employers seek to cut costs by cheating their employees out of their pay.

Chinese media slam rights lawyers as rabble-rousers

AP, BEIJING

Chinese state media yesterday accused more than two dozen human rights attorneys rounded up in recent days of being troublemakers intent on illegal activism, as foreign governments and rights groups expressed growing concern over the crackdown.

In its latest tally yesterday, the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group said 21 human rights lawyers and civil activists had been detained or have disappeared since Thursday last week.

Another 125 people — mostly lawyers and activists — have been warned not to speak up or act on behalf of those detained. Many of those who were warned had been detained briefly themselves.

The crackdown targets Chinese lawyers who have joined with civil activists in publicizing alleged unlawful practices by police and courts, drawing public attention to wrongful cases, disputing official narrations of controversial events and challenging authorities to follow the letter of the law.

Human Rights Watch researcher Maya Wang (王瑪雅) said the human rights lawyers had helped build a civil society in China over the past decade to hold authorities accountable, and that the crackdown was part of a “methodological dismantling” of that civil society since Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) came to power.

The US Department of State condemned the detentions earlier this week and called for the release of the lawyers, who it said were “seeking to protect the rights of Chinese citizens.”

China’s state-run newspaper Global Times yesterday responded by calling the US criticism uncomfortable, but inconsequential — like having “chewing gum stuck to your shoe” — and said it was up to Chinese courts to decide whether the lawyers acted illegally.

State media reports have depicted the lawyers as self-promoters intent on spreading half-truths and arranging illegal protests outside court venues. Xinhua news agency said that lawyers should uphold the law, not engage in “rabble-rousing” and “mob rule.”

Many of the detained lawyers belong to Beijing law firm Fengrui, which has defended human rights activists and practitioners of the banned spiritual group Falun Gong. Its office was raided by police on Friday.

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security accused the lawyers of disrupting public order, seeking illicit profits, illegally hiring protesters and trying to unfairly influence the courts, Xinhua said, saying more than 40 such incidents had occurred since July 2012.

The group of human rights lawyers and civil activists has been labeled a major crime gang, which the ministry claimed to have destroyed through a coordinated operation, Xinhua said.

Activists call for help for Chinese rights advocates

BEYOND ECONOMICS:The government should speak up about rights abuses in China, after a report said that 107 lawyers had been arrested, local activists said

By Loa Iok-sin  /  Staff reporter

Lawyer Wellington Koo, second left, accompanied by human rights lawyers and legislators, speaks at a press conference in Taipei yesterday, calling for support for the many rights advocates who have been arrested by Chinese authorities.

Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times

Lawmakers, lawyers and human rights activists yesterday called on the government to help dozens of Chinese rights advocates who were arrested recently.

“There have been very frequent official interactions; however, the focus has been placed on economic activities, while the human rights aspect has been overlooked,” Taiwan Association for Human Rights Secretary-General Chiu Ee-ling (邱伊翎) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.

“If Taiwan continues to keep silent on human rights abuses across the Taiwan Strait, what awaits us as far as human rights are concerned?” Chiu asked.

According to Weiquanwang, a Chinese-language Web site dedicated to human rights advocacy, as many as 107 human rights lawyers and dissidents were arrested from early Thursday morning up to 8am yesterday across China.

Eighty-five have since been released after questioning, seven are still being detained or are under house arrest, and 10 are missing, it said.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), in tears, said that “arresting these people is taking away China’s hope for the future.”

“These people know that they are at risk by getting involved in human rights issues. However, they continued to do their jobs and spoke out for the rights of Chinese,” Tien said.

“I would like to call on everyone to show more concern about human rights in China, as I believe that, there would be less harm when there is pressure from outside [the country],” she said.

Wellington Koo (顧立雄), an attorney and a long-time human rights advocate, said that the arrests of the lawyers are a warning for all.

“If lawyers can be arrested, everyone could be in trouble,” Koo said. “These lawyers only did their job as lawyers and fought for the rights of their clients. They were not out on the streets taking part in demonstrations deemed illegal by the government, and yet, they were arrested.”

Social Democratic Party legislative candidate Miao Po-ya (苗博雅), called on President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), currently on an official visit in the US, to make a statement, adding that “he should do more than hug a tree at Harvard University.”

The Mainland Affairs Council on Sunday called on Beijing to put into practice the universal concept of human rights protection in the wake of reports that scores of Chinese human rights activists have been detained by China’s public security agencies.

“Only by seeking a common ground and upholding human rights can the distance between Taiwanese and Chinese be bridged and a long-standing relationship between the two sides be further developed,” the council said.

The council added it is closely monitoring the development of human rights in China.

Additional reporting by CNA

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Shenzhen vows to get tough on bosses who put workers lives at risk

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8 July, 2015

The Shenzhen government has pledged to crackdown on workplace safety violators; prosecuting to the full extent of the law business owners and managers responsible for major accidents.

There were 1,361 workplace accidents in Shenzhen in the first five months of this year (a rate of nine every day), leading to 189 deaths and 436 injuries, and causing over 15 million yuan in economic losses, the city’s Deputy Mayor Zhang Hu revealed last week.

Most of these accidents were relatively small-scale, although at least 16 people, including three young children, were killed back in December 2013 when a fire destroyed an agricultural wholesale market in the outer suburbs of Shenzhen. It was reported at the time that many of the hydrants at the market were not working when the first fire trucks arrived.

A fire at a Shenzhen electroplating factory in April traps 26 workers. All were eventually rescued. PhotoGuangzhou Daily.

Zhang Hu called for more rigorous implementation of the revised Work Safety Law in Shenzhen. The revised law, which went into effect in December 2014, allows for fines of up to 20 million yuan for the companies and individuals culpable but so far there is little evidence that business owners anywhere in China are being convicted or even prosecuted under the new provisions.

There was just one case in late March this year in which an electronics manufacturer in Beijing was ordered to pay 800,000 yuan and the owner fined 40 percent of his annual income (as prescribed by the new law) after three workers died from poisoning while cleaning the plant’s waste water system.

In two very similar cases however there have been no reported fines or sanctions thus far. In these cases,  three people were killed and four hospitalized from methane poisoning after attempting to save a worker who had fallen into a methane storage tank in Fujian, and in Yunnan, four workers died and eight were injured after inhaling toxic fumes whilst cleaning a sugar factory storage tank.

Thus far it seems the new law has had little impact on workplace safety in China. In the seven months since the law went into effect, China Labour Bulletin has recorded 279 workplace accidents, with more than 580 deaths and 466 injuries. These figures represent only a fraction of the total number of work-related deaths in China, which according to official sources totalled 68,061 last year; however theWorkplace Accident Map does give us a useful snapshot of the most common types of accidents in China.

Accidents in the construction industry top the list, accounting for more than a third of the total. In many cases, workers fell to their death from a height due to a lack of, of failed, safety equipment. In other accidents, it was the structural collapse of the building or construction supports that led to the injury or death of workers on site.

Building collapses are also a hazard for factory workers as evidenced by the collapse of a shoe factory in Wenling, Zhejiang, on 4 July which killed 14 workers and injured 33 others. The building was reportedly scheduled for demolition and had been used by the factory illegally.

Although coal mine safety regularly draws international headlines, coal mine accidents accounted for just ten percent of the total in the last seven months. Most accidents were caused by cave-ins, floods and carbon-monoxide poisoning. In mid-April, 21 miners died after being trapped in a flooded mine in Datong, Shanxi. Only three were rescued.

By far the most serious work-related incident in the last seven months was the Yangtze River cruise ship disaster on 1 June in which 442 people died, including nearly all of the 46 crew members. In another incident on the Yangtze, 22 crew members died in a tugboat accident near Shanghai in January, while three more workers died on a boat during a bridge inspection on the river in Hubei in April.