This will seem very obscure and obtuse to many people, but there are some important questions that we need to ask about China that our government (read "big business interests") are not likely to ask. And the answers are not so black and white as many would suggest (as is often the case).
First, it's somewhat perplexing that several years ago the IOC (International Olympic Committee) chose to award the largest sustained spectacle on the world stage to a country that has a documented record of failure in terms of human rights. I think that perhaps part of the reasoning runs along the lines of applying pressure on the government to make positive changes because of the intensified public scrutiny that will, by definition, be applied as a result of being chosen. On the other hand, there is also the valid assertion that to award the Olympics to a country like China is tantamount to endorsing their behavior. I can see both sides and my allegiances are split between the two. I suspect that had I been given the power to decide, I would have given the games to another country (was Great Britain the other finalist?).
What's frustrating to me is the systemic commitment by the Chinese government to denying basic safety assurances to the workers producing the tens of millions of products that are shipped from there to the rest of the world each year--a huge percentage of which come to America. Our businesses close production facilities here (often after being coerced by WalMart--but that's a subject for a different post) and produce their products in China where workers make a few dollars a day and live in squalor. They're forced to work 12 or 16 hour shifts in factories with virtually no safety oversight. Broken bones and amputations are commonplace (e.g. one particular factory assembly line averages 40,000 broken or amputated fingers per year--that's just one factory). Several hundred thousand--yes, thousand--workers died there last year from exposure to poisonous chemicals and dusts in their workplace. Where oversight does exist, it is typically corrupt.
Not everyone--not even all businesses--ignores this. But those who don't (the businesses, I mean) only respond under pressure from consumers; not out of any real sense of ethical responsibility. Most of our businesses and the government as well (is there still a difference?) ignore the atrocities in favor of the profits. Lots of small and medium sized companies are forced into importing from China because they can't compete otherwise. As a result, good paying jobs in America, where safety and benefits are protected, are gone and we become increasingly dependent on a service based economy which will eventually consume itself (again, a subject for another post).
Sub-poverty wages, substandard housing, zero benefits, not just unsafe, but dangerous, working conditions, sixteen hour workdays--all these things are just another day in the life for millions of Chinese workers. Where is our outrage? It only exists when the danger spills over into our country in the form of tainted or dangerous products. Apparently, our safety is more valuable than theirs; our lives more worth saving.
Check out a good editorial on this subject at www.ishn.com.
I realize this is a break from my normal subject matter, but it is what I do for a living (as noted in my profile).
Pray for China and for peace.
Mike
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