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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| They came in search of jobs in the workshop of the world - and now they are going home |
| 2008-11-24 |
| More than 230 million Chinese left their farms for the new urban sprawls, but the economic expansion has gone into reverse. He has stretched out his meagre savings for nearly six weeks, but finally, and with only a few hundred yuan left to his name, Gang Wei is giving up. He borrows a friend’s mobile phone and makes the call he always dreaded. “I’m leaving tonight,” he says, filling a grey plastic sack with his possessions. “I’ve got some things to sell.” For Mr Gang, who used to work at a company pressing radio controllers for toy cars, this admission of defeat ends a personal dream that began three years ago, when he left Jiangxi and moved to Guangdong. For the Chinese Government watching nervously in Beijing, the movements of men such as Mr Gang – 23 years old and deeply disillusioned – pose a darkening threat to national ambition. This exodus was absolutely not part of the plan. The country’s astonishing growth story has been driven in large part by the more than 230 million people, mainly in their twenties, who have left their farms and migrated to jobs in the country’s expanding urban sprawls. The Government’s own calculations suggest that these cities will, in combination, need to create 24 million jobs a year to sustain the pace of migration – even before the global economic downturn, that appeared implausible; now, it seems impossible, especially given the pace with which people are heading back to their parents’ farms. Only three months ago, the small corner of Dongkeng where Mr Gang worked was yet another booming facet of the mighty Chinese industrial growth story: five huge factories, each employing thousands of workers, would churn out toys, electronics and shoes late into the night, much of it heading directly to the United States and to the shelves of stores such as Wal-Mart or the now-collapsed Circuit City. Smaller factories around them would supply parts, and services. At the end of each shift, the surrounding cafés and restaurants would spill out into the streets and the shops would hum with business. It was this seemingly unstoppable throb of commercial activity that drew Mr Gang, and ten million migrant workers like him, from rural China into the urban sprawl of the Pearl River Delta. Today the same corner of Dongkeng is a ghost town, its streets strewn with the raw plastic pellets that once fed the presses. Entire rows of shops are shuttered: those that remain open blare invitations to closing-down sales. The staff of local barber shops, pool bars and mobile phone showrooms stand forlorn and without customers. In the centre of town, the biggest crowds swarm the walls of work-placement offices in a desperate scramble for jobs. Rest at link. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #3 Its NOT just CHINA but also most of EAST-SOUTH ASIA where traditional farming is under heavy pressure, from pan-environ desertifications to pro-big industry urban growths. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-11-24 18:46 |
| #2 IIRC CHIN NETTERS > the main issue circles around the willingness of the CPC to de-regulate and allow PRC Citizens to engage in FOREIGN LABOR ACTIVITIES = EX-PATRI LABOR INCLUDING $$$ REMITTANCES, ETC. BACK TO THE MOTHERLAND. E.g. WORLD MILITARY FORUM/OTHER > it appears that Chin has reached a FOREIGN-ECON POLICY MILESTONE, i.e TO DECIDE IFF THE CHIN NATION-SOCIETY SHOULD REMAIN ISOLATIONIST, OR ENGAGE IN UNCERTAIN "INTERNATIONALISM/GLOBALISM" AS AN AMBITIOUS POST-USA/WEST SUPERPOWER-TO-BE??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-11-24 18:42 |
| #1 They have hit their first turn of the capitalist business cycle. A lot depends on how this is handled. |
| Posted by: buwaya 2008-11-24 15:52 |