Global Voices article reports on pneumoconiosis coverage in Chinese media

18 December 2009
Pneumoconiosis, and other lung diseases, have long been one of the most deadly hazards affecting the Chinese workforce. However, in recent months the Chinese media has come to life and reported on a series of high-profile weiquan (rights defense) actions taken by pneumoconiosis sufferers in Shenzhen and elsewhere. These media reports have been succinctly summarized in an article at Global Voices by Don Weinland.

In particular, prominent columnist Liang Wendao (梁文道) questions the nonchalantly callous attitude some government officials have taken when they see migrant workers dying of pneumoconiosis as an inevitable product of economic development. Liang writes:

A government employee once said to a gathering crowd of laborers: ‘This is history’s debt. This is the inevitable price of development.’ Although extremely familiar with this sort of wording, this report stung me more than any other. For so many years we’ve heard the drying of our water resources, the polluting of our earth, even the widening of the gap between rich and poor, used to describe the ‘price of development.’ But this was the first time I had heard an official call a crowd—who were waiting to die—the price of development.

For more, see the Global Voices article.
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