Recently I came across an interesting website that may have great potential in fighting child slavery, forced labour, and other appalling labour conditions: Free2Work. The International Labor Rights Forum, the Not For Sale Campaign, and Humanity United have teamed up to create this new platform that provides “a singular location that streamlines and simplifies the process for consumers on the topic of most concern to its audience, modern-day slavery”.

The explosion at an illegal firecracker factory in Guangxi two weeks ago that left two primary school children dead and 11 others badly injured has provoked not only anger and sympathy for the victims but a wide-ranging discussion in the Chinese blogosphere about the problems of left-behind children and the inequities of the household registration system.

The Hegang tragedy has intensified some sharp debate about how to prevent mining accidents, and has highlighted some of the common practices used by officialdom to suppress worker participation in the name of “stability”.

On 11 November 2009 the ACFTU (All-China Federation of Trade Unions) released a notice that called for the strengthening of union work during State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) restructuring, more independence from Party and government departments, and an end to the merging of ACTFU departments with Party departments. The notice lays out the problem quite clearly:

A recent Apple Daily editorial by Li Ping discussed the rumors that the military might cut its program that provides demobilizing soldiers with civilian jobs, and instead, would issue the soldiers a lump-sum payment. Li reports that rumors have resurfaced indicating that the government might implement a “lump sum payment system” (应金制), rather the continuing the “transfer to civilian job” (转业) system. This would essentially mean that soldiers would receive a one-time compensation payment in cash, and officials would no longer remain responsible for their civilian work arraignments. Li also points out that the system is not unlike the “one-time redundancy payments” (买断工龄) common in the State-Owned Enterprise restructuring（企业改革）era.

Have Chongqing’s prosecutors been watching too many episodes of The Sopranos? I ask merely because the latest installment in the Chongqing crime boss trials that have gripped the nation over the last few weeks has all the hallmarks of HBO’s award-winning drama series - corrupt politicians, crooked businessmen and vicious gangsters conspiring to organize strikes and monopolize the market.

A recent South China Morning Post article points towards a limited revival in the fortunes of Cantonese in Shenzhen. As it is now, many migrant workers to Guangdong come from the broad Mandarin-speaking areas of China in the northern and south-western parts of the country. Generally speaking, they are unable to learn the local language, due to lack of classes and the large amount of time that they spend working. However, some of the children of migrant workers − the second generation of migrant workers who have often grown up in the cities – are enthusiastic to speak Cantonese in Shenzhen, partly as a way of asserting their new identity as Shenzheners.

A look at how China’s parliamentary system is set up shows that the devil is indeed in the details, and the solution to fixing the system may come through constitutional appeals for equality. According to the Election Law, representatives from rural areas currently represent four times as many people as their urban counterparts . For example, say an urban representative represents 10,000 constituents. His or her colleague from a rural area would represent 40,000 constituents. Obviously, this means people from rural areas are underrepresented in the congresses, while the urban representatives have the advantage of using systematic steroids.

On the same day that Zhang Haichao was awarded 615,000 yuan in compensation for pneumoconiosis contracted while working at an abrasive materials factory in Henan, another migrant worker suffering from the same disease was being given the runaround by hospital and government authorities in Sichuan. Xiao Huazhong, an elderly retired miner from Qu county in Sichuan, suffers from stage three pneumoconiosis and has been seeking compensation from his former employer for several years, so far all to no avail. His former employer, Liao Xing’an, is a local coal baron and one of the most powerful men in Qu county.

The award last week of 615,000 yuan in damages to China’s best-known pneumoconiosis victim, Zhang Haichao, is very welcome news but it should not suggest that work-related illness sufferers in China are getting a better deal – far from it.