Three students go “undercover” as migrant workers in Dongguan. Their report details the pay and conditions and the attitude of migrant workers towards employer abuses and their awareness of the law.Photo by Travel Geographer.

As Foxconn plans to move more production inland, workers at its flagship facility in Shenzhen face an uncertain future. Photograph of Shenzhen by Nako

Beijing-based journalist, David Yang recently investigated the case of a battery factory worker in the northeastern province of Jilin who was diagnosed with acute lead poisoning and renal failure but could not get adequate compensation because the authorities, apparently in collusion with his employer, refused to classify his injury as work-related.

Dozens of villages in outer Beijing are due to be demolished to make way for new developments. But the migrant workers and young graduates who live there will get zero compensation for being made homeless. Photo of Tangjialing village.

Su Huawen taught in the village primary school he helped set up in 1953 for nearly 50 years. He taught mathematics, Chinese, music and physical education. He was admired and respected by students and parents alike, so much so, villagers addressed him as “Scholar” (文公). Today, 78-year-old Su is in poor health and lives dire poverty with hardly any income or pension because the local government in Leizhou, southwesten Guangdong, has refused to pay him the 12,000 yuan he was owed after being forcibly retired in 2000. Su has been waiting ten years for his money and has not seen one cent.

A university degree is supposed to provide students from poor rural families with a good job, high status and, crucially, a residency in the big city that would allow them to start their own family. However, the reality for today’s graduates is very different.

On 27 July, the municipal government of Xian formally banned a local workers’ rights group that was seeking, but never obtained, official recognition of its status as an enterprise restructuring watchdog.

Outside the main entrance to the Xuri electronic toy factory in Shaoguan, scene of the mass brawl in June between thousands Han and Uighur employees that left two dead, there is a large red banner proclaiming 手拉手共创平安 心连心构建和谐 (hand in hand bring about peace together, hearts beating as one realize harmony). Peace has indeed returned to the factory that triggered the deadly riots in Xinjiang on 5 July, but, workers say, that is only because the Uighur employees have all been removed from the premises.

In July 2009, Zhang Haichao voluntarily underwent an operation to open up his chest in order to prove he was suffering from the fatal lung disease pneumoconiosis. Photograph of Zhang by Yanzhou Metropolis Daily

In January 2009, a young man working in Shanghai returned to his home village in Anhui for the Spring Festival. He recorded his observations in a blog, which sheds light on the life facing the millions of rural migrants returning home after losing their jobs in the cities. Photo of rural Anhui by Toby Simkin