China set to become world's sweatshop, report warns
The eradication of poverty in China has stalled since the country joined the World Trade Organisation four years ago, with more than three-quarters of rural households expected to suffer a cut in real incomes between 2001-07, a report warns today.
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The study by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), timed to coincide with next week's WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong, says that China is becoming the sweat shop of the world as large numbers of agricultural and former state enterprise workers chase work in the cities, depressing wages.
A separate report by Oxfam warned earlier this week that imports of cheap subsidised US cotton to China would result in a loss of $208m (�176m, ￡119m) in income and 720,000 jobs this year, hitting in particular Gansu and Xinjiang, two of China's poorest regions.
ICFTU says that membership of the WTO has boosted the incomes of those already benefiting from China's economic reforms: private enterprise capitalist and white collar workers. The losers have been blue collar workers, farmers and unskilled office workers, "whose income has remained stagnant for the last 10 years".
About 250m people still earn less than $1 a day, the official measure of poverty, and 700m, 47 per cent of the population, live on less than $2 a day. As a result, "the people who provide everything from T-shirts to DVD players to the world's consumers often have 60-70 hour working weeks, live in dormitories with eight to 16 people in each room, earn less than the minimum wages that go as low as $44 per month, and have unemployment as the only prospect if they should get injured in the factories", says the ICFTU.
It warns that China will need to create 300m new jobs over the next decade to compensate for job losses in agriculture and at former state-owned enterprises - which is "much higher than China's current job creation capacity".
Unemployment and inequality therefore would continue to rise "if the Chinese government's strategy for further growth, employment creation and poverty eradication is based only on securing a larger share of global trade".
Since 1995, the number of companies under state control has halved, shedding 59m jobs, while emerging private enterprises have created only 16m jobs, according to the International Labour Organisation.
Guy Ryder, ICFTU general-secretary, said: "Most people seem to have been too blinded by China's economic results to see the dark side. Domestic concerns, such as their own trade deficits and the jobs they might lose from cheap Chinese imports, have overshadowed any doubts the international community may have about exactly how Chinese companies are able to produce DVD players that sell for less than $50."
中国已成世界血汗工厂？
一
份报告今天警告说，中国自4年前加入世贸组织(WTO)以来，减贫进展一直停滞不前，预计在2001至2007年间，将有逾四分之三的农村家庭实际收入减少。
该研究报告由国际自由工会联盟(ICFTU)撰写，发表时机恰逢下周将召开世贸组织香港部长级会议。报告表示，随着大量中国农业人口和国有企业下岗工人在城市里争抢工作岗位，从而打压了工资，中国正成为世界的血汗工厂。
乐施会(Oxfam)本周早些时候发布的另一份报告警告说，中国从美国进口有政府补贴的廉价棉花，今年将导致中国棉农损失2.08亿美元(合1.76亿欧元、1.19亿英镑)收入和72万人失业，对中国两个最贫穷的地区甘肃和新疆的打击将尤其严重。
国际自由工会联盟表示，中国成为世贸组织成员后，那些已得益于中国经济改革的人收入增加了：他们是私营企业资本家和白领工人。遭受损失的是蓝领工人、农民和无一技之长的办公室员工，“在过去10年里，这些人的收入仍不见增长”。
中国有约2.5亿人日收入低于衡量贫困的官方标准，即不到1美元。47%的人口，既7亿人，每天靠不足2美元维持生计。结果，“那些为全世界的消费者提供从T恤衫到DVD播放机等一切产品的人，常常每周要工作60至70小时，住在每间房要住8至16人的集体宿舍里，每月收入还不到44美元的最低工资标准，而且如果出工伤，他们面临的唯一前景就是失业，”该联盟表示。
国际自由工会联盟警告，未来10年，中国需创造3亿个新就业岗位，才能弥补农业和前国有企业流失的就业岗位，这“远远高于中国目前的就业创造能力”。
“如果中国政府进一步经济增长、创造就业和消除贫困的战略只是建立在获取更大全球贸易份额之上”，那失业将会继续增加，不平等将继续加剧。
国际劳工组织(ILO)称，1995年以来，国家控制下的企业数量减少了一半，裁减了5900万个就业岗位，而新兴的私营企业仅创造了1600万个就业岗位。
国际自由工会联盟秘书长简礼达(Guy Ryder)说：“多数人只看到中国的经济成果，而无视其阴暗面。别国国内担心的是自身的贸易逆差，以及来自中国的廉价进口商品可能造成的就业岗位流失，从而掩盖了国际社会可能有的任何怀疑，即中国企业究竟是靠什么办法，生产出售价不到50美元的DVD播放机的。
