‘De-Americanized’ world needed after US government shutdown: Beijing

While US politicians grapple with how to reopen their shuttered government and avoid a potentially disastrous default on their debt, the world should consider ‘de-Americanizing’, a commentary by Xinhua news agency said yesterday.

“As US politicians of both political parties [fail to find a] viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world,” the commentary said.

In a lengthy polemic against US hegemony since World War II, it added: “Such alarming days when the destinies of others are in the hands of a hypocritical nation have to be terminated.”

“A new world order should be put in place, according to which all nations, big or small, poor or rich, can have their key interests respected and protected on an equal footing,” it said.

Negotiations over how to end the budgetary impasse have shifted to the US Senate after House Representatives failed to strike a deal with US Barack President Obama on extending borrowing authority ahead of the deadline on Thursday.

Beijing has in recent days issued warnings as well as appeals for a deal, all the while emphasizing the inseparable economic ties that bind the world’s two biggest economies.

“The cyclical stagnation in Washington for a viable bipartisan solution over a federal budget and an approval for raising the debt ceiling has again left many nations’ tremendous [US] dollar assets in jeopardy and the international community highly agonized,” the commentary said.

China is the biggest foreign holder of US Treasury bonds, worth a total of US$1.28 trillion, according to US government data.

“Instead of honoring its duties as a responsible leading power, a self-serving Washington has abused its superpower status and introduced even more chaos into the world by shifting financial risks overseas,” but equally stoked “regional tensions amid territorial disputes, and fighting unwarranted wars under the cover of outright lies” the commentary said.

It added that emerging economies should have a greater say in major international financial institutions the World Bank and the IMF, and proposed a “new international reserve currency that is to be created to replace the dominant US dollar.”

China has only slightly more weight than Italy at the IMF, which has been headed by a European since its creation in 1944.

A governance reform has been in the works for three years, but its implementation has been blocked by the effective veto of the US.

Fire at food processing plant in Shandong kills at least 18 workers

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18 November, 2014

Just three months after a massive explosion at automotive components factory in Kunshan killed at least 75 workers and injured 185 others, a fire at a food processing plant in Shandong has killed 18 workers and injured another 13.

The fire broke out on Sunday evening, 16 November, at Longyuan Food Co. Ltd.'s carrot packaging workshop in Shouguang, near Weifang, one of China’s main food processing centres.

The People’s Daily quoted a local restaurant owner as saying: “It was a big fire and many workers fled.” There were 140 people in the building at the time, four of whom remain unaccounted for.

The factory owners have been detained by police as the investigation into the cause of the fire continues, according to official media.

Photo: weibo.com/CCTV News

Immediately following the Kunshan disaster, a group of labour activists and academics issued an open letter demanding that workers play a much more active role in supervising and ensuring workplace safety.

They pointed out that in nearly all workplace accidents in China both management and local government officials had failed to protect workers and as such it was now time to learn from other countries where workers play a prominent role in workplace safety committees along with management and local government officials.

The Shouguang disaster is the second major fire in the food processing industry in China in the last 18 months. A fire at a poultry processing plant in the north-eastern province of Jilin in June last year killed 121 people. The blaze was blamed on poor management, lack of government oversight, no worker training in fire safety, and locked exits.

Women factory workers in Guangzhou play hardball in negotiations with management

Jiayi's blog

Women factory workers in Guangzhou play hardball in negotiations with management

22 October, 2014

Management at a Guangzhou shoe factory got a nasty shock when their representatives sat down with three worker representatives on Tuesday to discuss the factory’s closure plan. Management’s lawyers claimed the company could only pay the workers after first selling off the factory’s assets. The response from the worker’s chief representative, Qin Qingmei, was uncompromising:

“This is bullshit! Sell or buy as you please, it has nothing to do with settling this labour dispute,” Qin said before making a counter-offer and walking out of the bargaining session with her two colleagues and two consultants from nearby labour organizations. See photograph below. The three women workers were greeted as heroes by their more than one hundred co-workers outside.

Qin, a veteran worker from the neighbouring province of Hunan in her 40s, said management initially did not want to pay them at all before closing the factory and relocating the business. Instead, management forced employees to take unpaid leave and reduced their salaries to just 260 yuan a month in a bid to make them quit.

“During the last two months, we have been trying to engage management in collective bargaining but they kept ignoring our requests and tried to secretly remove production lines and valuable assets,” said Yang Liyan, one of the workers’ democratically-elected negotiators.

The workers decided to go out on strike last month on 16 September and their representatives sought help from the Guangzhou Municipal Federation of Trade Unions and the local government, which agreed to mediate the talks between workers and management. The factory is not unionized.

Chen Huihai, a consultant from the Laowei Law Firm in Shenzhen remarked: “I am very impressed with the power of the women workers here. Over 60 percent of this group of 116 workers are women and the most relentless bargaining representatives are all women.”

Opinion: The Rise of China's Workers

the-rise-of-china-s-workers

China's Opinion:Street movement ruins Hong Kong image

Street movement ruins Hong Kong image

Source:Global Times Published: 2014-9-29

---

Radical activists in Hong Kong announced early Sunday the 
launch of the Occupy Central movement, raising the curtain on 
an illicit campaign earlier than expected. Photos of Hong Kong 
police being forced to disperse demonstrators with teargas have 
been widely circulated online across the world. These activists 
are jeopardizing the global image of Hong Kong, and presenting
the world with the turbulent face of the city.

Hong Kong is a financial and fashion hub of the world. As 
Chinese mainlanders, we feel sorrow over the chaos in Hong 
Kong on Sunday. Radical opposition forces in Hong Kong 
should be blamed.

US media is linking the Occupy Central movement with the 
Tiananmen Incident in 1989. By hyping such a groundless 
comparison, they attempt to mislead and stir up Hong Kong 
society.

China is no longer the same nation it was 25 years ago. We 
have accumulated experience and drawn lessons from others,
 which help strengthen our judgment when faced with social 
disorder.

The country now has more feasible approaches to deal with 
varied disturbances.

Recent years have witnessed many severe mass incidents, but
 none had the ability to disturb the thinking of society. China has
 tackled these incidents smoothly.

In Asia, Hong Kong boasts a tradition of the rule of law. 
Therefore, the Chinese mainland has confidence that the Hong
 Kong government will keep the Occupy Central movement 
under control in accordance with the law. Many worry that the 
street movement could snowball into a bigger event, further 
provoking the public mood. This appears exactly the tactic of
 the radical opposition group. Though facing unprecedented 
risks, Hong Kong's basic stability won't be broken.

The radical activists are doomed. Opposition groups know well 
it's impossible to alter the decision of the Standing Committee 
of the National People's Congress on Hong Kong's political 
reform plan.

Street movements can evolve into revolution when more 
demonstrators become embroiled in them. However, Hong 
Kong is not a country; it neither has the conditions for a "color 
revolution," nor are the forces on the street influential enough to 
mobilize its entire populace.

The Alliance for Peace and Democracy has demonstrated its 
strength and influence. The Hong Kong government can take 
actions to resume order in response to the damage the radical 
forces caused to society. Occupy Central is unable to erode the
 authority of the rule of law.

Opposition groups are attempting to build momentum at the 
start of Occupy Central. They shouted "Step down Leung
 Chun-ying" in a bid to scare constructive forces within Hong 
Kong that support the central government. The central 
government must firmly support the Hong Kong Special 
Administrative Region in taking resolute action against radical 
activities, including drawing the red line of Hong Kong's rule of 
law. It must be made clear that there is no uncertainty over
 political reform in Hong Kong.

Chinese media condemns Walmart for firing food-safety whistle blower

Chinese media condemns Walmart for firing food-safety whistle blowers

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22 September, 2014

American retail giant Walmart has dismissed four employees after they exposed serious food-safety violations at one of its stores in Shenzhen. China’s state-run news agency Xinhua on 16 September described the retaliatory act as “despicable” (卑鄙).

The workers, some of whom had been working at the store for over a decade, talked to the local media on 6 August 2014 about how the store used bug-infested rice and expired meat to prepare food, changed expiration dates on food packages, and used “black oil” for frying.

An earlier television report had shown the thick black oil that was used in the cooked-food department for up to one month without being changed. “My conscience doesn’t allow me (to keep silent),” one the workers who had been employed at the store since 2007 told a Guangzhou newspaper. “I just want the customers to know what they have been eating at Walmart.”

The worker claimed that had he reported the issue to the store’s so-called Ethics Office but the company did nothing. Moreover, most of his colleagues refused to take a stand and chose to turn a blind eye to what they had seen. He was suspended from duty five days after the scandal broke and was later formally dismissed along with three colleagues.

At least three of the workers have now sought arbitration in Shenzhen and are claiming compensation for unfair dismissal.

Photograph by DCMaster available at flickr.com under a creative commons licence.

Walmart however claimed that the dismissals were unrelated to the workers’ whistle blowing activities. In a statement issued to the press on 16 September, Walmart said: “We will never allow anyone to violate company regulations... The Company will deal with employees in accordance with the Labour Contract Law and our human resources policies.”

Xinhua meanwhile, in its report condemning the sackings, called for whistle blowers in China to be given better protection from employer reprisals.

Employment Discrimination in China

http://www.clb.org.hk/en/view-resource-centre-content/110167